Hello crafty people!
Kristie here from Kristie Kreates
Have you seen the many types and colors of
enamel dots out there on the market?
There are a lot of companies that make them
in different colors.
If you search the internet, you will find varying prices,
but most of the ones I see cost about $3.99 for a few dozen
of one color or possibly a couple coordinating colors.
Today I'm going to show you how to make your own.
If you have children that do crafts you may know what Perler beads are.
They are those little beads that you arrange in a pattern,
then you iron over the top of them to melt them together.
They are very inexpensive and come in a lot of colors.
Here is what I bought at my local big box craft store.
I found them on clearance AND got a % off with a coupon.
Click on the picture and you can see on the label
some pictures of the crafty things you can do with them.
But today, we'll be making some enamel dots.
First thing to do is line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
If you have a teflon oven sheet you can also use that.
Next put the beads onto the cookie sheet, with the
holes up. This is a little tedious, so I put on a crafting
video or watch tv while I do it.
Now put them into a 300 degree oven.
I found that 30 - 32 minutes at this temp works great
with my oven.
You may have to change the length of time
depending on your oven.
Perler beads are meant to melt and do not
put off fumes or smell at all.
Here is my first batch ready to come out of the oven.
This is how the striped beads turn out.
I think they should have stayed in the oven a little longer,
as they have a tiny "dimple" in the top of some of them.
Here is my next batch.
These were all plain colored beads.
They came out nice and smooth.
I have done a few batches and just love them.
Here is a picture showing some of the beads (top 3) before being melted
and some after (bottom 3)
I'm sure you're wondering what I'll be doing with all these
enamel dots.
Some of them I'll keep for myself to use on scrapbook layouts
and cards that I make.
A lot of them will be used as part of some "goodie bags" that will
be given out at a scrapbooking event in a couple months.
I hope you'll give these a try.
Why don't you pop over to my blog
and see how I've used some of them.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out this month's
crafty tutorial. Let me know if you try this out
and how you like using them.
Until next time, have some fun crafting!
