First off, I want to say that we really did get outside yesterday. We spent the morning with friends at a fun new playground. And good thing too, because now it is cold and windy!
Hearts for Valentines Day
But after nap, Maia and I went back to the studio and made these lovely stained glass hearts. You've probably been thinking that I'm getting too Martha Stewart with all these holiday decorations. Well this one actually is from Martha Stewart. What can I say? She has some beautiful ideas. I started off planning to making heart frames for them with construction paper or just tape the hearts to the window as I've done with stars, but then I came across this on her site and fell in love.
As prep, I grated some old chunky crayons and put them into three bowls—one each for pink, orange, and red. I would have grated a white crayon or two but I couldn't find any.
Then I folded some sheets of wax paper in half.
Maia took a piece of wax paper, opened it up, sprinkled grated crayon bits (sometimes too liberally) on one side, and folded it back up. She's a pro at this since we've made crayon "stained glass" windows a few times now.
I did the ironing part, with Maia watching and checking up on the progress. I keep the iron on low—I use the silk setting—and always sandwich the wax paper between a couple sheets of newsprint or other paper since the waxy stuff bleeds through somewhat.
Afterward, I drew hearts on the wax paper, and we both cut them out. Maia punched a hole in each with our hole punch—her new favorite tool—and I hung them up with white thread in our living room window.
Aren't these stained glass hearts beautiful? I love them. I wish my photo skills were up to par. I keep meaning to read the manual for my camera, but manuals don't like me much, and now I can't even find it. I'd like to be able to get it off auto focus and be able to focus on something close up and let the background be blurry. Any tips?
By the way, in case you want more fun kids crafts for Valentines Day, I was interviewed for a "Make Your Own Valentine Cards" article in our local Mountain Xpress. It's online here, and in print on page 31 (Edgy Mama's column) for those of you in the Asheville area.
If you liked these melted crayon stained glass hearts, then you might like the other Valentine's Day crafts and recipes in The Artful Winter ebook:
