For Mother's Day (and yes, I realize that was a whole month ago, but that's the life I lead these days.) the boys and I (with the aid of a nap from the baby.) made sun-catchers out of pony beads. It's really simple and they come out very pretty. They're also long-lasting and hard to break. Winning combination. Even the Fox, who does not like to sit for art, loved making them and has since requested to make them for his teachers' gifts at the end of the year.
Here's What You Need:
- transparent pony beads (9 mm)
- metal muffin tin and/or metal cookie cutters and a metal baking sheet
- a grill (or an oven but it gets kind of a fumey for the indoors.)
Here's What You Do:
1. Preheat your gas grill to high.
2. Meanwhile, fill up your muffin tins with patterns (or willy-nilly) of pony beads. Keep it to one layer. Or fill up the cookie cutters set up on the cookie sheet.
3. Heat up your designs on the grill until the beads melt, about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the cookie cutters because as the beads melt they might seep under the edges and when they cool it's a lot harder to get the plastic out of the cookie cutter. (I've read on other sites that you can do this in a 400* oven for about twenty minutes, but make sure that if you do, to have your windows wide open- the fumes are overwhelming!)
4. Cool.
5. Pop your creations out of their molds. I was surprised how easily the suncatchers came out of the tins. I thought for sure we were going to lose the tin, but just flipping it over and making a quick bang to the underside with a mallet made them pop right out.
6. Drill a hole in the tops of your suncatchers and string a plastic thread through.
7.Hang in a sunny spot and enjoy!
Making these were a huge hit with my kids and a great gift for the grandmothers (and aunts and teachers and the Fox even kept one for himself that he carried around with him for a week.)
* No bake-ware was harmed in the process of this project.
