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My daughter is slowly beginning to love arts and crafts. Which I love, because if you follow my blog, you know that sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get my son to color. He has to be enticed and then will be genuinely engaged for a couple minutes, but he isn’t the “I want to color all day” type of boy. {He’d rather play with Legos.}
I wanted to make some sweet Valentine’s Day crayon hearts, they are so so beautiful! but I realized that my efforts would really be in vain because my son wouldn’t really care to color with them. He’d think they were cool for about five seconds and then go back to playing with his Legos. Ha.
So, why not make baby-safe crayons for the baby?!
Recently, I made some of Mommypatumus’ wonderful homemade deodorant, (which I use and love) so I started with her basic recipe: coconut oil and arrowroot powder!
My full Baby-safe, Edible Crayon Recipe is below! But first, the sweet pictures of May and her sweet crayons! We used this with heart shaped white and black paper because the color was a bit light….
And what did John do with the crayons? Well he painted one of course! I brought them out for May while he was painting Valentine’s Day Hearts, and he loved painting it.
To make these baby crayons….
- Melt about 1 cup of coconut oil (I often find refined (i.e. not smelly) coconut oil for super cheap at my grocery store)
- Add in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of arrowroot powder (a plant-based natural thickener)
- Mix in oil-based food coloring
- Stir until it begins to thicken
- Pour into a sweet heart mold (I found mine at Amazon)
- Carefully place in the freezer and wait for them to turn solid!
- Gently crack them out of the mold and color with your baby!
Note: I did not have oil-based food coloring. Water and oil don’t mix no matter how much you try to stir, Amy!? So even though my sweet heart baby crayons are pink, they aren’t the bright pink I’d hoped for. But practice makes perfect, so we’ll definitely do this again with the oil-based food coloring!
Also: Make sure to keep these in a cool place or a refrigerator, as these will melt with heat — and in little ones’ hands. Using more arrowroot powder makes them less melty, but more crumbly.
More Valentine’s Day fun:
Follow our Valentine’s Day Board on Pinterest:
And find more Baby Play Ideas on Pinterest:
Aw, I think the pastel crayons are pretty! And I love that they are “edible” — I have a baby that puts *everything* in her mouth right now!
Thanks so much Carla!! They were so easy — could be used for any event or holiday!!
Amy you are too much for me!!! How sweet is M in these pictures?!?
Haha!! She really loved these — I know isn’t that one of her so great, so glad I have a good camera now xo
My 4 year old is jumping up and down begging me to help her make some crayons like those. It looks easy and doable. Those are beautiful pictures :-)
I love this post, Amy! The crayons are so pretty. But your photos are absolutely beautiful!! I’m glad you shared the post on the Hip Homeschool Hop. :)
What a great idea. Pinning and sharing.
Stopping from KBN. Love this idea! It is simply brilliant! I would never have thought this formula would work for this purpose! I will try using cornstarch as no arrowroot powder here and I remember with homemade deodorant (may I ask if the idea comes from that recipe?) it becomes quite solid within a few days of being kept in the fridge. Oh, and adding a drop of teatree oil will give it more shelf life. Thank you so much for sharing! Pinning and sharing it as well!