yep, we made heARTful crayons again this year… per N’s request, we brought them back from this post two years ago. (last year N gave out homemade smoochie lipbalm to her friends - yum!)

this time around, when upcycling crayons, we incorporated a few valuable tips from my beloved blog readers and from our own trial and error.

here are a few ways to make your life easier when making molded upcycled crayons:

1. soak the crayons in water for about 10 minutes before attempting to peel the labels off. it’s CAKE compared to the last time we did it and i had rainbow wax under my fingernails for days! (my fingernails thank you, wendy!)
2. spray the mold with non-stick cooking spray (nut free, please!)
3. put the mold onto a cookie sheet that is lined with foil (to catch drips)
4. “bake” for 15 minutes at 250 degrees. (you may need to add on a couple more minutes to be sure they’re all melted.
5. note: stubs from your kid’s crayola twistables do not melt at this time and temperature like the regular ol’ crayola crayons do.
6. transfer crayons directly from the oven to the freezer
7. pop ‘em right outta the mold, package, and share the love!

hope it’s a lovely day! hug your loved ones close; reach out to loved ones far.

happy heART day!

when N turned one, it was just a pink & green cupcake theme – from the birthday girl’s outfit and bib to, well, the cupcakes:

one

N’s second birthday fell on the chinese new year. it worked out great because she was OBSESSED with only reading the grace lin books at that time. (our copy of fortune cookie fortunes got completely ripped apart from overuse.) so, naturally, we did a chinese new year theme that year — with origami cranes tied the the end of each balloon string, fortune cookies, take-out boxes full of party favors, lanterns, etc. fun stuff!

two

when N turned three, her birthday party was all about fairies: every child (and some grown ups!) wore wings, enjoyed fairy cake, played in a fairy tent, and were given homemade magical fairy wands.

three

last year on N’s fourth birthday, she requested a “rainbow art party” so we went all out. i created this juicy, hefty blog post showing the execution of all the party details.

four

so far this year, we’ve engaged in our annual tradition of bringing out and decorating her birthday ring with little fairy friends. N chose the color of beeswax for her five birthday candles from our assortment.

she then got busy rolling five beeswax candles for the ring.

she was so excited to place them in the ring and begin the countdown to her fifth birthday!

this year, i’m doing my best to fulfill N’s fifth birthday theme request, and it’s proving to be lots of fun! stay tuned for all the fun party details – i’ll dish here at the month’s end!

do your children have themes for their birthday parties?

this was one of the activities in our advent calendar, actually. we were both excited when N opened that envelope! first, N chose 5 colors of beeswax from our wax stash. (yes, we have one of those. is that weird?) i love the color scheme she ended up with!

then we tried to cut them with a cookie cutter… and tried… it was hard for a 4-year-old (and for mom!) to push through our wax (even one sheet at a time) with our metal cookie cutter.

puuuuuuuush

so we found another way and held each sheet up individuall and pressed through it on the backside.

then N stacked the 5 layers in the order she wanted them to appear.

we sandwiched a piece of wick (leaving about an inch at the top to light) between the layers, and pressed them together. we used our teeeny tiny cookie cutters (shown in bottom photo – i heart these!) to cut out a wax star for the top of this tree.

it made for a really cool candle!

here is our wax sculpture posing by the real thang… it’s so madame tussauds.

though after this one was made, N decided to use the rest of these sheets of wax in an old, familiar way instead of cookie cutting more of them.

maybe i’ll cookie cut more later — they make cute gifts for any season or holiday!

on this special day, all of the children wore orange and yellow to school. there were many autumnal activities and presentations. N’s kindergarten class worked on sanding pieces of wood and drilling holes into them as candle holders. N was so proud to show me hers after school that day.she wanted to create her own candle to put into her new holder, so we got out our beeswax.

she had a hard time deciding between red and purple wax (her favorite colors,) but loooved examining the honeycomb shapes on it. eventually, she settled on red, and we cut an 8″ x 8″ piece of wax. N put the wick alongside one edge of it and simply rolled it up with even pressure across.

…as even as she could.

she pushed the candle down into the hole in her candleholder, and was psyched that it fit. (we totally didn’t pre-measure any of this, so i was glad, too.) that night we lit it for dinner, and N was “in looooove” with the candle.

before snuffing out the candle (and cutely whispering “thank you candle for your light”) N said (and sang) her meal blessing song from her kindergarten class:

as for supplies: we scored a little bag of 10 short candle wicks from N’s waldorf school store (my new favorite art supply and toy store!) for just $1. i already had some wax around the house from the last time we made candles, and we’ve got acorn caps stored up over here like nobody’s business. we even added in a few shells from our summer OBX trip, just to mix it up.

N and i picked through the acorn caps to find ones that would lay relatively flat, or ones that would lay flat after we picked off the stem. if you can’t find ones that are flat enough on top (candle bottom) that’s okay — one fun way to display these are as floating candles in a pretty bowl with lovely autumn leaves!

the N put the wicks into each cap and shell…

…while i melted the wax in our double boiler.

good thing i had everything on top of wax paper on my counter because pouring the melted wax into such tiny nature containers was tricky — but made us smile

now we’ve got a sweet collection of tiny candles for our autumn nature table and to gift to friends. (and i’m gonna go grab some more $1 packs of wicks this week at kindergarten pick up time!)