If you have girls you probably have a huge collection of various plastic beads. At some point your girls will probably out grow the desire to string endless strands of pony bead necklaces and you will be left wondering.......What do I do with all these left over beads?
I have the answer for you.........
You melt them!
By doing a little web surfing I found out that you can transform plastic beads into bowls, sun catchers, lamp shapes, night lights, jewelry and cool Christmas ornaments!
For our first melted bead projects we made a few sun catchers.
Here is what I did.
1. First, decide on a shape you want your sun catcher to be. I used some light weight disposable Reynolds molds that I bought at the 99 cents store.
You can also use cookie cutters, pie tins or just free form it!
2. Place the beads in a single layer on the bottom of the form. Try to fill the entire area the best you can to avoid holes (but holes can be cool).3. I melt my beads at 425 for approximately 25 minutes. The time needed to melt the beads will depend on a few factors, size of your beads and your oven. Less melting times = the beads holding more of their original shape. More melting time = more blending.
Warning**Melting beads lets off toxic fumes that are strong enough to lower your IQ!
I highly recommend that you melt your beads in an old toaster oven that is placed on your back patio or another well ventilated area. Seriously people, these stink and I'm sure the fumes are bad for you.
If you aren't worried about your IQ and use your indoor oven make sure you have plenty of ventilation by opening the doors, windows and running a fan or two. Just the little whiff's I got by opening the door to the toaster oven was enough to make me feel like I had probably lost a few brain cells in the process (but it is worth it).
More molds!
4. After we melted our beads we let them cool and then peeled them out of their tin foil forms. I also tried using a cookie cuter and the cooled plastic popped right out of it.
5. Next I grabbed my supply of soft 24 gauge wire to wrap around the girls creations.
After a few wraps and curly-q's.
A sun catcher was born!
After looking at these completed sun catchers I was thinking how cute they would look with some coordinating seed beads added to the wire.
The possibilities are endless.
***added 2/15/12 -- If you want to pin this craft on Pinterest....Yee haw and thank you. However, could you just pin a picture and refrain from copying all of my text into the pin. Thanks and happy crafting.
Bowls
Bracelet & ring
Art
Lampshade
Night light cover
Happy Crafting!
49 comments:
that is WAY cool! Too cool! No wonder they call you One Crafty Mama.
I'm calling my girls to go find beads...
definitely way cool!
Beautiful!! I love this idea:)
Such a CUTE project. Love it!
that is VERY CUTE, and what a great way to use up those old beads we don't use anymore! thanks for the great idea!
That is a brilliant idea!!!!
And I love your Thanksgiving story last post.
This is the neatest craft!
I may actually try this -- what a cool idea. And I'll keep it outside -- my brain cells are precious and few.
those are awesome! Too beautiful, really. You are just so crafty, I guess that is why you blog at One Crafty Momma. ;)
That is REALLY cool!
those r really cool. ur so crafty!
Oh my gosh, that is so cool!!!!!
Yours turned out very well and look great in the light.
How cool! I love these. You are just too, too crafty sometimes. :)
What fun! I love how bright and cheery they look. Just what I need, another project idea.... ;)
So cute. Such a good idea and a fun project. I just love that star sun catcher you made :)
These came out awesome!!
That is cool! I think my kids would love a craft like that. Problem is...we don't have beads around. LOL Guess I'll have to get some! :)
that is SUCH a GREAT idea michelle! i never would have thought of that - so colourful too!
Those are so awesome! I may need to invest in an old toaster oven. As I do need to keep every brain cell I have left.
What a cool idea!!
Hey - I LOVE this idea! My kids would have so much fun with this! Beats me picking these little tiny beads up off the floor!
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
Oh hey...this was written during my blogcation! No fair!
Those are gorgeous! I wouldn't have thought it could turn out like that.
The only thing we've done with beads and heat is to med them together onto those plastic grid thingies. That was fun, but not beautiful like these are!
what a cool idea I have never seen this before and think it is great
No girls or beads here but I have to say, those sun catchers came out fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That looks like a great project for our 4th grade scouts.
Those turned out awesome! Great ideas for Christmas presents!
Great craft idea! I am going to give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
Oh...I am so doing this when the weather is warmer and I can "cook" them outside!!! I need all the brain cells I can get!
You are a genious. I have to try this sometime. Perhaps when the weather outside isnt -10.
P.S. Im another crafty mama, check out my blog sometime
http://www.craftychicmommy.blogspot.com/
OMG! I love.
Hopped over from crafty chic mama today. LOVE this idea! Off to check off the rest of your blog!
Joanne @ Ready, Set, Craft!
http://www.readysetcraft.blogspot.com
oh my goodness! It's so cool and easy. i really WANT to be crafty but i feel like a big dummy when it comes to trying to come up with stuff. i bought a cricut machine, but i haven't done a thing with it yet.
thanks for the comment over on my blog! i love SITS!
Michelle, that is so neat. I've never heard of that before, where've I been? LOL
Those are so pretty, and I usually see bags of beads at the thrift store. Gonna have to check this out...but definitely using the back porch, lol.
love this...thanks!!
I have to admit that the results look great, but I sure hope none of my neighbours are planning to do this. Very dangerous indeed, even out of doors.
absolutely awesome....what a great craft!!!! and i posted it at my fb site
Can't wait to try this!
I overheard someone talking about melting plastic beads for suncatchers...so I "googled" that phrase and your post came up. Sounds like great fun. I can't wait to try it.
Thanks for sharing it...back in Nov. of 2009!
I just made these and cooked them on the grill at 500 for just 10 minutes and it worked perfectly and no fumes in the house.
Hi I want to try this using cookie cutters. What can I use on the cookie sheet to prevent it from sticking? Thanks!
Hi is it possible to use a smaller mold to make a necklace charm? And if I cook it in a toaster oven is it safe to still cook food in ? I'd really like to try...
I followed this from Pinterest as I am looking into melting beads I inherited....
Have you ever tried swirling the beads when they are heating? I forsee a nice change up of color but maybe they just muddy up?
Hi,
I was wondering if you could tell me what you did differently with the last two photos of stars? I really like the clear, transparent look of your last star - did you do something different to get that glassy look?? I am just starting to try melting shot glasses and beads and I find that my colors are too blotchy rather than the glassy, transparent kind. Any advice would be very welcome!
Thanks so much for sharing this craft with all of us.
Did yours turn out cloudy on one side?
Thank you.
great idea! Rosewood Beads are what i use
So you posted this quite a while ago but I am glad it is still available. Today my mother in law and I tried using the faceted beads and in other ones we tried the pony beads. I recommend that they are separated into different batches because the pony beads take less time then faceted beads. I much prefer the faceted beads which I found to very pretty when done. We did not notice a lot of smell with ours. But we did have the door open because it was a pretty day.
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