So in the scrapbooking realm, enamel dots are all the rage (at least for me!). The downside is that a pretty package with about 40-60 dots usually costs $4-5. Not highway robbery...but I love to put a nice little cluster on a card or scrapbook page, so as a result I tend to hoard them. Anyways, on instagram I noticed that some people were making their own with perler and pony beads. I decided to give it a try this weekend.
I bought this package of perler beads from Michael's for about $10. That's 11,000 dots for $10 plus the electricity to heat my oven. Yes, please. Of course, you can't get the variety in sizes...but that's okay.
before...during...after
Here are a few tips from what I researched and experimented. This worked for my oven, but I'm sure everyone's is different.
- Put down parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay them out. I like to arrange by color because it's prettier to look at. :)
- 280-285*F for 30ish minutes. I put a timer on and rotated the pan halfway through because they seemed to cook a little unevenly.
- At first I tried dark colors and light colors separately because I heard they took different amounts of time...but I did not find that to be the case. Black, white, grey, and clear beads all seemed to take longer than the rest of the colors though. On the last batch I did a variety and just kept those four colors in the back the whole time.
- When the dimple disappears from all of them, take them out and let cool to the touch. Mine didn't stick to the paper, so I was able to funnel them into a container easily.
- In my experience there was no smell at all, but I didn't try any pony beads (I read differing reports on smell between the types of beads).
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