PONY BEAD SUN CATCHERS

With little effort, these turned out pretty cool. I won’t lie, though: They sat on our counter for a good month before I finally sanded them down and drilled a hole in each. But hey, they’re done now and oh so colorful. They’re similar to the perler bead bowls that we did earlier this year, except they’re semi-transparent which makes for some great sun catchers!

WHAT YOU NEED
semi-transparent pony beads
grill spray
muffin or cake pans
toaster oven
sand paper
drill
string

WHAT TO DO
1. Set-up your creation station outside. I would highly recommend taking your toaster oven outside to do this little project. No one wants that melted plastic smell to linger in their house!

2. Thoroughly coat your muffin or cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. (I promise that it will not ruin your pans if you use enough spray.) Sprinkle the pony beads to cover the bottom of each pan.

Since this process only takes about 5 minutes to complete, find another outdoor activity to occupy your little love while they bake. Chalk drawings were Mya’s activity of choice.

3. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I kept checking back every 5 minutes. Whenever all the beads are melted and the surface appears smooth, remove from the oven.

4. Let them completely cool and pop-out your sun catchers. (I soaked the pans in water and dial dish soap right after the project to make sure everything was thoroughly cleaned out.) While they cooled, we made some necklaces and bracelets from leftover pony beads. And apparently, all the crafting wore Mya out because she exclaimed, “This is fun, but hard work!” and then laid down on the floor.

5. The edges may be rough and sharp in areas, so take some sand paper and file them down. I used 120 grit because that’s what we had on-hand. Be careful not to scratch the front or back of the disk. Only file the edge.

6. Use a drill to make a hole in each one. If you want to connect your sun catchers to each other, drill two holes at opposite sides of each disk.

7. Attach some string to your sun catcher and hang her up!

We hung up the large disk above the kitchen sink. It’s behind some blinds, but we can still easily see the colorful specs and Mya is proud of her “hard work.” Spoiler alert!: We decided to save the little sun catchers for Christmas ornaments, which we’ll add as gift toppers. Last year, Mya made these ornaments; and now we can check 2015’s handmade ornaments off the list!

Next time, we might try making a design within each disk using the different colors. Also, using opaque pony beads in large cake pans would be cool hung in a cluster on the wall. You wouldn’t even need to drill holes in them to hang them on the wall. You could just use plate hangers! Have fun, kids!