Friday, December 17, 2010

Preschool Art / Craft – Melted Bead Christmas Ornaments

imageA few weeks ago, in a preschool post, I mentioned some great little suncatcher kits from Makit Bakit.  I remember making these when I was a kid, and they were so much fun.  These come in both boy and girl themes, which makes my art-loving boy very happy. 

You fill the sections of a metal suncatcher frame with the beads (I have M pinch them to transfer them to the frame – great fine motor work), then pop the whole thing into the oven for 20 minutes and they melt.  The result is a stained-glass-look suncatcher.  I think this kind is much, much prettier than the kind you paint.

racecar suncatchera racecar M made recently 
(the black beads are not transparent,
and make it look a bit splotchy;
most kits don’t have the black beads)

Each package has more than enough plastic beads for the suncatcher that comes with it.  I’d love it if they had just packs of the beads available, but as far as I know, they don’t offer them apart from the suncatcher frames.

You know I can’t throw those extra beads away. :)  So we used them with mini cookie cutters to make ornaments.

Our extra beads:plate with extra beads 

Line a pan with aluminum foil and place the cookie cutters on it.  Then begin filling them up with beads.  You want to have a layer that completely covers the foil at the bottom of each cookie cutter, with a small mound in the center that thins out towards the edges:filling the cookie cutters up with beads

Pop them into a 375 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. 

You have to be quick with this next part.  As soon as they are out of the oven, they begin to cool off and get hard.  To make the hole for ribbon, I used a 1/8” dowel, coated with non-stick spray.  Stick it into the area of each ornament where you want the hole to be.  The first couple were pretty easy, then as they started to harden, I had to really twist the dowel to get it out.  I ended up putting half of the ornaments back into the oven to melt a bit and then made holes in them.

Peel the foil off the back, and pop them out of the cookie cutters.

They turned out pretty cute! finished ornaments

Strung onto ribbon, they’ll look so pretty on the tree or even hanging in a window. december 2010 002

Have a beautiful day! :)

6 comments:

  1. These turned out great! Yet another good idea - thanks so much :-)

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  2. I love the way they look in the window.

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  3. oo very pretty!! I think Sammy would have a blast with these!

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  4. This is a great idea! I'd hae never thought of this. They came out pretty and look nice in the window. This was one of my favorite posts for the week and I've linked up to it here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2010/12/weekly-favorites-december-19-2010.html

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  5. I love this! These kits were one of my favourite craft things to do as a child, I had forgotten all about them. I'll have to hunt down some for my eldest to have a go at - thankyou for the idea. And using the left over beads with cutters to make tree decorations is just fabulous!

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  6. beautiful and so festive, I am sure they will look great on the tree flickering off all the christmas lights.

    http://polwig.com

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