Try-It-Out Tuesday

Hello Fabulous Friends!

 

Welcome to the first ever Try-It-Out Tuesday. :) I hope all of you are doing well. It's a stormy night here in North Western Oklahoma. I really love to listen to the thunder and rain, but when it's tornado season it loses some of the pleasantry. I had planned on taking pictures of some of my purchases, but the day got away from me. My husband also came home early, and with him being a Chief Resident(I'm bragging on him here since he won't let me in person), I don't get nearly enough time with him. He's my favorite person :) Don't fret about the pictures though, I have plenty from something I tried out!

 

So for our first Try-It-Out Tuesday, I made my own enamel dots from pony beads. I had been seeing these all over YouTube, Pinterest, and the blog-a-sphere. I decided to try them for myself. In the town I live in there is only a Hobby Lobby as far as crafts go, and they don't have enamel dots. They used to, but not anymore, and the next closest craft store is an hour away.

 

The gist of making these is baking the pony beads until they meld and form a pretty dome on the top. I had read that they give off bad fumes, so I got out the toaster oven (a wedding present from almost 10 years ago) and headed to the garage. The kids road their bikes while I melted beads. They turned out alright. The pictures will explain better.

 

 Really all you need is an oven, a pan, parchment paper, and pony beads. They should be baked at 425°F for about 6-10 minutes. Now that's with a toaster oven, the video I originally watched said 8-12 minutes but it was a regular oven. Make sure when you lay them out, you keep a good distance between them, and you place them hole up and down.

 

There was definitely an odor as they were cooking. I'm glad I was in the open garage. They look so amazing as they melt. I was certain they were all perfect when they were cooling. 

 

 

Many did turn out amazing, the solid traditional ones(right), turned out better than the iridescent ones on the left. They look okay in the picture, but in person you can see a void of shimmer in a circle where the hole was. I noticed some colors melt better than others do.

 

 

As you can tell from these pictures, some don't turn out so well. With one batch I put them in before the toaster oven had time to heat up, and they burned. You can see how the bottoms look.

 

 

All in all I would say this trial was a success. I know much more than I did before, and I feel prepared to try it again. There will absolutely need to be a trip to buy more solid colored basic ones.  I had so many that turned out well, and my kids had fun helping lay them out. I have heard you can do the same thing with perler beads, but they don't smell and they turn out smaller. I think those have to be on our list to try. I hope you all enjoyed Try-It-Out Tuesday as much as I did! Thanks for reading you guys :) I'd love to hear what you all think.

 

~Dusty