Summer is here and with that comes tons of hearing "I'm bored" from the kids. Now normally they don't say this too often to me otherwise they get handed a list of some chores that they can do. However, I do hear it on occasion especially from my youngest. She likes to be doing something or going somewhere. Since it is my goal to save money this summer and fall for a possible trip to Disney this winter, taking a family with 4 kids to the movies, pool or elsewhere is pretty much out of the question.
Luckily, she likes to craft and make things.
I LOVE to rubber stamp and scrapbook. I used to do all 12x12 scrapbook albums and labor for hours over one page. There is just not time for that anymore, so I mainly do a Project Life or pocket album type of scrapbooking. One of the popular embellishments for that and card making is enamel dots. They can get pretty pricey so many have taken to making their own from perler beads or pony beads.
It just so happens that this day my new perler bead pen came from Amazon and I wanted to test it out and make some more beads.
I have made some of these before and was very happy with how they turned out at the temp used so I stayed with that. I pre-heat my oven to 290* and slipped my silicone baking mat on my jelly roll pan and set out to line the pan with the beads. This was the most time consuming part last time. I almost gave up without even trying because after taking OVER 20 minutes to carefully line up all my pretty little beads, when I stood up to put them in the oven I bumped the tray on the oven rack and knocked more than half of them over! So after taking the time and baking a few trays worth a couple months ago, I put the beads away and had not made anymore. Then I happened upon that bead pen! It seemed like an extremely ingenious idea that could make my dot making go so much faster. So even though I am trying to be on a spending freeze, I just had to order it. I mean after all, it was less than $7 and if it saved me time, that's kind of like saving money right? Plus I am trying to make the beads and use them in my Stampin' Up! business as door prizes and things, so that will help pay for it, and I have Amazon Prime so the shipping is free. Hmm. I think I may be trying to over justify this little purchase too much.
So here comes the test, did I waste my money, or was I totally justified in purchasing this new crafting tool?
I opened the package on the bead pen at 5:33 and immediately filled it with beads and got started. At 5:44 I was putting the beautiful tray of colored beads in my oven. So in 11 minutes I had filled the tray completely! That also included refilling the bead pen 4 times and having to set some of the beads back up because in my trying to hurry, I knocked some over. Take your time and you will still save time! This thing will make my enamel dot making SO MUCH QUICKER!
Here is my tray of beads all ready to go into the oven! I bake mine at 290* for 40 minutes and they always turn out nice. If yours don't look right, bake until the little dimple is gone from the middle. Also, normally I do the brown, black and glitter ones on their own for 45-50 minutes as the darker ones seem to need a little extra time. You can use parchment paper but I find the silicone mat easier and it helps grip them a little so they don't slide and fall over as easily.
As for the intended use of putting the beads on the little shapes to make something like my daughter uses them for, that is a different story. Yes it will work but not quite as well. My bucket of beads was all mixed up so when I loaded the pen it had several colors in it. That made it hard to design the little tray the way we wanted it. It may be better if your beads are sorted. The jury is still out on that one. But regardless my daughter had tons of fun playing with it. She was no longer bored, we spent time together and I got some dots made for my scrapbook pages and cards!
