365 Days With Kiddos - #37 - Make "Stained Glass" Hearts Using Crayon Shaving

The first time my daughter used a crayon sharpener she got so into it that we decided to sharpen every crayon we own. This, of course, produced a large pile of crayon shavings. I seemed to remember using these in a craft when I was a child, and after thinking on it a bit, I remembered putting them between pieces of wax paper, ironing, and making "stained glass". This is a great way to recycle and upcycle your crayon shavings.

How to Make a Stained Glass Heart (or any other shape) With Crayon Shavings
By Tiffany Teske
For all ages (children will need adult supervision when using the iron)

You will need:
- crayons that need to be sharpened
- a crayon or pencil sharpener
- wax paper
- a cereal box cardboard for making a template
- an iron
- a dish towel
Optional - a table top or standing ironing board to iron on (we just ironed on the counter on top of the dish towel)
Optional - foil ribbon, glitter, confetti, or anything else you would like to add.

Instructions:

1) Create a template in the shape that you want the wax paper to be. We used a heart we saved from a box of chocolates from several years ago. You can preheat the iron now. We used it on a medium high setting since we ironed through the dish towel.

2) Cut two pieces of wax paper to a size that the template will fit onto.

3) Put the template on top of the wax paper and trace. Repeat on the other sheet.

4) Cut out the shapes along the traced lines.

5) Cut out pieces of ribbon to sandwich into your heart.

6) Place one of the wax paper pieces on top of half of the dish towel. Place ribbon snippets, crayon shavings, and any other optional items on top of the wax paper.

7) Place the other wax paper piece on top of the other. Fold the empty side of the dish towel over on top of the wax paper sandwich.

8) Iron, with the steam setting off, on top of the towel, checking from time to time to see if the crayon shaving are melting in the sandwich.

Iron....

Iron a bit more...

9) When the shaving have melted, remove the dish towel and admire your art work! Tape it to the window using clear tape.

Do you know a variation on this craft? If so, please leave it in the comment below. You could make these smaller, put them on a string, and hand them out as Valentines...

365 Days With Kiddos - #1 - Your Child's Drawings and Paintings - Repurposing Them Into Cards, Stationary, & Envelopes

Happy Labour Day! It seems like a good day to start my 365 posts. Each post is an idea from our home to yours on ways you and your children can live a more creative life each day. These are all ideas we have used or regularly use in our home. Some are simple and require just a few minutes and some are more complex, requiring an afternoon or weekend. Most do not require purchasing special items but instead focus on activities that are little or no cost, often recycling or repurposing (upcycling) items you already have or can find at thrift stores and yard sales. I don't know which one is the best one to start with so I am just going to dive right in... To enrich each post with ideas and inspiration, please feel free to add your comments, links, and ideas.

Most children produce a plethora of drawings, paintings, and other 2-D visual art pieces. Home, school, and daycare, are just a few of the many places our kids make art, and our homes become filled with these amazing creations. Over the next few days I will give you my ideas on ways to view, store, and repurpose these works of art.

The simplest way to repurpose your child's art work is to make cards, stationary, and envelopes out of them. We keep a stack of Quin's art just for this purpose. When it is time to give a birthday card, to send a thank you card, or to write to my grandmother, we go to the pile and select a drawing or painting. For stationary we cut the painting or drawing down to a managable size and then cut out sheets using our rotary cutter (since I am unable to draw and cut a straight line to save my life!). If you prefer, you can always trace a template piece of stationary or use a straight edge to mark off the larger sheet to the smaller size you want, then cut it all out with a scissor. For cards, we cut out the part of the painting we want to be on the card, then fold. Voila! I often use stray envelopes that I have from old card and stationary sets, but we also make envelopes that match the cards. A great place for envelope templates is Mirkwood Designs. The templates are free to use and there are so many of them that just browsing is sure to inspire you to try other projects. Ruthann, of Mirkwood Designs, also has a blog. Friends and family will be happy to receive a personal card from your child. Have fun!

Soy Tea Cup Candles - Tutorial

I would like to start including more tutorials on my blog. Some by me, some by guests. If you have a project that you would like to write about, I am happy to feature it here. Leave me a comment and I will contact you...

I have been wanting to make soy candles for a long time. They are really easy to make container candles. And since I love to drink tea (and most other hot beverages) I thought tea cups would make the perfect container. While you can find vintage tea cups at antique shops, I prefer to buy mine at the thrift store. They usually don't have saucers, which I don't need, and the price is right.

I don't like to rely on products made from petroleum, and since paraffin candles are petroleum based, I had been looking for an alternative. Soy candles are made with wax that is made from soy beans. Soy wax is a sustainable product that can be made as long as soybeans can be grown, which benefits farmers. They also last twice as long as paraffin candles. However, many makers of soy candles claim that they are soot free, which is false. While properly made soy candles do not emit black soot they can emit white soot. This soot is comparable to households soots produced by toasters and cooking oil, and are not believed to be dangerous to our health the way that soot from diesel, coal, and gasoline are. Soy wax is a soft wax which is best used in containers, or as tealight or tart candles. It is difficult to make a 100% soy (or beeswax for that matter) pillar or votive candles, although I have seen soy blend wax for votives. Most freestanding candles have been mixed with paraffin in some ratio. There is said to be no scientific evidence that paraffin wax is harmful to your health. It is a personal choice which one you use. Check out this article for more info on paraffin vs soy wax.

To get started making soy candles I bought a one pound container of microwaveable soy wax flakes for containers, from the company called Yaley. I bought this at Micheal's in Canada, and it cost something like $11, which is a lot more than it costs on the Yaley site (which is in the US, so the prices need to adjusted accordingly). On their site, a 25 lb. box of the same wax is $53.75 US. I was able to make three small container votives and two tea cup candles with one pound of wax. I also bought scent and wicks from Michael's. I bought the wrong wicks... for some reason it is not best to use metal centered wicks with soy wax. I ended up going to the dollar store where I got metal-less wicks, 7 for $1.50. They burn well, but are a lot more expensive than just buying wicking in a larger quantity. Yaley has medium wicking at the special price of $10 a bag, which gives me 230 wicks! I won't get into prices but I did find a Canadian source for soy wax candle making supplies called Canwax. I plan to order all my supplies from them in the future....

Making Soy Tea Cup Candles


You will need:
Containers
Soy Wax Flakes
Microwaveable container or double boiler
Thermometer
Wicks
Skewer of some sort to keep wicks straight


1) Wash and dry your containers. They should be room temperature when you fill them with wax.

2) The best burning wicks to use with soy wax do not have wire in the middle of the wick. They can have a metal disc at the bottom of the wick, but it is not necessary. You can secure your wick in the middle of the container with a drop of wax, but it will move again once you fill the container.

3) Melt the wax in a microwaveable container in your microwave according to package instructions. You can also use a double boiler on a stove top. You will need a thermometer to check the temp. My wax was best at 180 degrees F.

4) You can add scent at this point, which comes in a block that looks like wax. Use according to your instructions. I grated mine before adding so it would melt well. I didn't use coloring but I believe you could add that at this point.


5) Hold your wick while pouring in the wax. When you let go, it may shift. I bent my wicks around a BBQ skewer so I could position them.


6) Let your candles cool and harden. I noticed that my candles in clear containers kept some "wet" looking spots. I guess this is the nature of the wax, as the Yaley site just introduced a wax that doesn't tend to do this. It didn't seem to be a problem in the tea cups. You can get cracks when the wax dries, which you can minimize by using a BBQ lighter flame, carefully so as not to light the wick, on the surface of the wax. I didn't have a lot of cracking since I was working in a room temp environment. I think you get more cracks when working in a cold place.


Have you made these candles? Have a tip to share? Leave a comment. I am very pleased with my candles and will be making many more for gifts and my own home...

My New Cutting Board and a Kid's Craft Project

I was looking online for a green cutting board when I found Epicurean. I blogged about them here. I wanted to give them a try and my 8x6" Recycled Series board arrived a couple of days ago. In the meantime, I found a local shop, The Colorful Cook in Canmore, Alberta, that carries this line of cutting boards, so I can go buy more if I like them... and boy, I do likey!


They are made in Duluth, Minnesota, from recycled cardboard. They are resistant to heat and stains, are dishwasher safe, and kind to knives. I have used my board several times already. After an initial wash with soap and water, my daughter and I made a small fruit salad. The board did resist staining, and was super easy to clean up again with soap, water, and an air dry. I have already brought my old plastic board of the same size to the thrift store. And next week, I plan to go to The Colorful Cook to buy a 14x11" board. If you are looking for a green, healthy board, please check out Epicurean.


On a side note, there was a long piece of packing paper protecting our new cutting board. It was about the same length as my daughter, so instead of throwing it into the recycler, we got to work tracing each other, then we used markers to dress up Quin's new buddy. Thanks to Epicurean for an environmentally responsible cutting board and for providing us with a morning of inventive fun!