Homemade Flower Week: Melted Bead Flower Rings
Spring is in the air and we’ve got flowers on the brain. We had a giant bag of plastic beads sitting in our cabinet and I could not have been more excited to use them for something a little bit different. I actually did a test melt run of these flowers the other night and my kid went nuts when she saw them. She had already started picking out colors to make her own flower patterns before I even had the foil out.
If you don’t have a bag of beads already, pick a small one up at Target in the craft section. They should come with a colorful assortment to make plenty of different flower varieties.
About 15 minutes in the toaster oven and these beauties were a huge hit.
Once the melted beads were completely cooled, I grabbed some heavy duty glue and attached the flower to the top of an adjustable ring blank. A few hours later after the glue had dried, my kid was all about posing with her new bling. You could use these flowers on anything from barrettes to necklace charms, so many different options.
Now for the instructions…
Melted Bead Rings
Prep Time: 5 minutes Hands on Time: 10 minutes, not including baking time
Supplies:
Plastic Pony Beads (7 beads for one flower)
Foil
Small cookie sheet or toaster oven tray
Toaster Oven (a regular oven works, too)
Strong glue (we used Gorilla glue)
Ring blanks
Preheat the toaster oven to 375*.
Arrange beads on the foil covered baking sheet. We used one bead for the center and 6 for the petals. The beads should touch each other and the middle bead. Put the bead flowers into the (toaster) oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes. Once the beads start heating, they shrink and move apart from each other. After 5 minutes of baking, pull the pan out and push the beads together again with your fingers. Do this quickly and put the pan back in the oven. Bake longer than the 10 – 15 minutes if needed but continue to check on them every couple of minutes. Over-baking creates more of a blob than defined petals. Once the flowers have completely cooled, remove them from the foil. Find your ring blank, add some strong glue to the top and gently press the flower bead on top of it. Try to keep it still for the amount of time recommended on the glue bottle. Once the glue is completely dry, enjoy your new jewelry.
*We only made one batch of these to keep the house from smelling. Keeping your oven heated with melted beads for too long will make one really foul smell in your house.
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