Valentine’s Day “stained glass” hearts

Short of hopping the next plane to Florida, there’s not much you can do about the gray and dreary winter skies that blanket Chicago this time of year. However, you can improve the view out your windows by decorating them with colorful “stained glass” hearts just in time for Valentine’s Day.This fun and easy project will brighten everyone’s mood while creating some homemade holiday decor.

Instructions:

1. Begin by rounding up old or broken crayon pieces (I always savebroken crayons in plastic bags for projects like these). Avoidpieces that are too small or they will be difficult for small handsto work with. Peel off any paper. We used a selection of red, pinkand orange crayons because we had a Valentine’s Day theme in mind,but you can use whatever color crayons you have around.
2. Grate the crayons into small pieces using a cheese grater. Thisstep requires adult supervision. (Watch those fingers andknuckles!) Gather your crayon shavings into piles, sorted bycolor.
3. Cover your ironing board with an old towel or rag and lay onepiece of wax paper down flat. Spread the crayon shavings around thewax paper. You can use one color only or mix the colors togetherfor a blended effect. We found that fewer crayon shavings workedbetter for this project, so start with a small amount. Cover thecrayon pieces with another, similar-size piece of wax paper andanother old towel (this project can get messy if the melted crayonsooze out, so you want to protect both your iron and your ironingboard).
4. Set the iron to a medium heat and carefully move it back andforth over the towel a few times. This is an adult- or big-kid-onlyjob. After a few strokes, lift up the towel to see if the crayonshavings have melted. If not, keep ironing until you achieve thedesired result.
5. Let the wax paper cool completely and check to be sure theedges have adhered together completely. Using a heart-shapedtemplate, trace hearts in various sizes onto the wax paper. Cut outeach heart shape.
6. You can display the “stained glass” hearts in your window in afew different ways. You could tape them right to the glass. Or youcan use a punch to put a hole in each heart and string them from aribbon secured to the window frame with a push pin. Another festiveoption is to string several hearts together onto a longer ribbon tocreate a Valentine’s Day bunting that drapes across your entirewindow.

Materials:

• Crayons (red, pink, orange, white)
• Box grater or cheese grater
• Wax paper
• Iron, ironing board
• Old, thin towels or rags
• Heart-shaped templates (we usedactivityvillage.co.uk/heart_templates.htm)
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• String or ribbon
• Push pins
• Tape