The girls are in love with their new bowls. I kind of am too. Don’t they just look like pieces of art. They are so easy to do to.
All you need are a bowl, cooking spray and Perler Beads 11,000 Count-Multi-Mix
Spray a layer of cooking spray in the bowl. Take the pearler beads and drop them in the bowl. Once you have a few handfuls in there, start to push them down so they form one layer. As you push them down, the beads will begin to climb up the bowl. Add more if you want a larger bowl. Just make sure they’re in one layer.
Once the Perler beads are pushed down, bake them on 375. I baked them for 12-14 minutes. However, I’m not sure how consistent that would be, so I’d keep a watchful eye on the bowl. The plastic begins to melt and the beads adhere together. I thought it might smell really bad, but it wasn’t bad at all. I had the small whiff of plastic as I opened the oven.
[field name = iframe]
Abby decided she wanted her bowl to hold sun glasses. Great choice. We needed a place for these. I just thought the results were beautiful. I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, but when I clicked on the link it couldn’t find the page. So, I had to wing it. Turned out great.
Gorgeous! Another project on out to do list:)
Great idea! My little ones would love making these!
I love these! I’m going to have to make them with my grandson – I think he would get a kick out of how they stick together. Thanks for sharing!
I’m here checking you out from the Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things. If you get a chance check out my Sunflower Wreath posted there or at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3903374216259&set=a.3871155090801.2150445.1036342162&type=3&theater
I love this project. What a great gift idea and so simple to do.
Beth @ Hungry Happenings
We love perler beads. I will definitely have to try this with the kids.
What a lovely idea! Great bowls!
these are so so fantastic what a clever idea and they look gorgeous! I hope you’ll link it up at my What We Wore, Read and Made party
marissa
rae gun ramblings
Great idea !
but what is it the cooking spray and at which point of the process do we use it ?
You spray the bottom of the glass bowl before you put the beads in. Here’s a link to cooking spray: http://www.pamcookingspray.com/ It’s basically away to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bowl. If you don’t have cooking spray, you could probably just do a thin layer of oil or grease on the bowl. Not sure if it will be messier, but I’m sure you could just wash it off.
What kind of bowl you can use..im afraid it will explode when put in the oven
I use my glass mixing bowls for this project. I hope this helps. Have fun with it!
Thanks a lot,you ve been very helpful
Dina from Athens,Greece
I love these bowls. I wonder how deep you could make it before the beads start to fall from the sides back in the middle? Thanks for linking up at Mom’s Library!
I love these bowls! My daughter will for sure want to try this out. Thanks for sharing!
Blessings,
Nici ~ Posed Perfection
Congratulations! Your project was featured in July’s Top 5 most popular posts on Fun Family Crafts! Thanks for sharing your creativity, we love it! If you would like a special top 5 button to display, you can grab it at the bottom of the feature post. Thanks! http://funfamilycrafts.com/july-2012-top-posts/
Thank you so much! That’s really exciting. I tried to grab the button a few times and put it on the post, but it didn’t work for me. I just highlighted the html code and pasted, so I don’t know why it’s not working. Let me know if there’s another solution for that. Meanwhile, I’ll do a text link.
Did you use a pyrex bowl? and what size is the bowl you used?
I am having a hard time figuring that out.
Thank you,
Christine
My bowl was Pyrex, but you just need an oven safe bowl. The size I used was 7 1/4 inches in diameter measuring from the inside edges. I’m sure you can do other sizes though. I just did a placemat in a jelly roll pan https://meaningfulmama.com/2012/08/day-227-perler-bead-placemats.html, so I imagine there are a few options of things to do with these beads. I hope that helps!
it does! we are making them right now…
what kind of bowl? glass?
Yup – it’s an oven safe, glass bowl.
Great post! I quoted your blog in my post.
http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/2012/09/melting-beads.html
Thank you for linking back. Now I totally have to try the cookie cutter idea.
We made these yesterday and they kinda look like a piece of modern art. My mom was convinced we can sell them (hooray for super supportive mamas!)Thanks again for this awesome idea:
I quoted you twice: http://jewishhomeschoolnyc.blogspot.com/2012/10/parshat-noach-rain-and-rainbow-projects.html and here http://jewishhomeschoolnyc.blogspot.com/2012/10/perler-bead-fun.html
Do you think it would it work with other plastic beads? I have a big container of ones I bought from the dollar store that I don’t know what to do with!
I’m pretty sure it would work.
I’m trying it now, while the kids are napping! If it works I will help them make a few for themselves and the grandparents for Christmas. Today we tried the salt dough ornaments and they look great! My son (almost 4) scribbled blue marker on the one that was supposed to be Santa, and I admit I colored my 22 month old daughter’s one for her!
Did the dollar store beads work??????
She sent me pictures. They did work. They took a lot longer to melt and the result seemed a tad different. The beads seemed more round to me I the end. Still cute, and it looked like her kids enjoyed it.
Hi! We made these for several Christmas presents this year. We did a Pyrex glass bowl, ramekins for small little bowls, and also the cookie cutter suggestion in the comments above. Today we also did them in the bottom of a 13×9 Pyrex pan for a small placemat (in lieu of your pan/rod tutorial) which turned out to be really cute. Next we are thinking of just lining the bottom of ramekins for “coasters”. Thanks for the fun idea!
How do you take the bowl out of the glass bowl? or do you leave it there?
If you use the non-stick cooking spray, it should just pop right out. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
I just tried with pony beads and they will not come out of the bowl even though I sprayed with pam.
Bummer! I hope it didn’t ruin your bowl…must have if it didn’t come out. I’m so sorry!
Thanks for posting! I was just about to try with pony beads! I think I still will only ill line with parchment and use a container I don’t care about!
I also wonder if buttons would work?
Hmm…I have no idea if buttons would work. Super interesting. I think I want to try that now. I am afraid of that kind of plastic melting, but i think I have an idea for that. Stay tuned…might be a major fail but worth a shot. Thanks for the idea.
How long do you let the beads/bowl cool before popping out? And was there anything you did to encourage them to come out? My granddaughter is in such a rush. 🙂
I don’t remember how long it took to cool to the touch. I would set it outside if you are in a colder area. You could probably also put it in the refrigerator. It should just pop out when it’s cold enough.
Thank you. We just couldn’t wait so as soon as we could handle them I slipped a butter knife and out popped the bowls. We are very happy with this project!
Beautiful Art…. Adorable…
Love this craft..
Thank you so much. It’s a lot of fun.
Beautiful Art… very cute…adorable..
Love this art. thanks for the idea..
I must tell you that I did this craft with my 5 y/o granddaughter and it worked like a charm. Can’t wait to do this with my other granddaughters! Thank you.
This is an awemazing project. I am going to try it with just two colors like lavender/Purple, Black/pink and black/red. thanks for the awesome ideas,
Ooo – What a fun idea to color sort like that. I’d love to see the results. I bet it would look so cool. Thanks for commenting.
I have made three of these which turned out great. I have a hard time with the PAM turning black and runny though. When I tried making a cake plate with these beads the PAM left dark areas on the plate. Also when I melt the beads I put a small bowl of vinegar and water on the lower shelf in the oven, this kills any smell of burning plastic.
So weird, Leah. I had no problem with them turning black and runny. I’m really curious what the difference is between people’s experience. Mine just popped out, and the glass bowl looked clear – with a little Pam residue (very clear) on the sides. I’m so sorry!
Maybe having the bowl of water and vinegar in the oven at the same time had something to do with the PAM turning black and ruining the bottom of your creation. Just a thought.
That’s an interesting idea. I had no issue with this happening though. The bottom looked just as great as the top.
Have to try this idea i have gotten the craftsy newsletter for a while now and this is the first project that i just have to do….thank you for your brilliant mind and winging it for us all the first go around.
Thank you so much for commenting. You’ll have to let me know how it goes for you. It’s a huge compliment that is is going to be your first attempt at something Craftsy has put out. Thanks for that.
We made a big bowl and it turned out great – although our beads seem to have run a bit – they are now big ‘o’s. I didn’t have any pam, but just used sunflower seed oil – no problem. The kids were really enthusiastic. However, we tried another set in metal and that didn’t work at all. Oops!
Thanks for the idea!
I’m glad your big bowls turned out. Sorry about the metal ones! Thank so much for sharing your experience with the project!
This worked nicely and we had a lot of fun doing it. The only thing is the smell was terrible…(Mentioned in article “Not too bad just a whiff as I opened the oven door”) It smelled posionious actually.
Oh really? That wasn’t my experience. I wonder why the difference. I am glad you had fun though. Thanks for commenting. I find all the comments helpful for others considering the craft.
Ours are in the oven right now! was so fun to make.
I’m so glad. It’s a really fun product to have around too. My kids store their jewelry in them.
Do you have to use perler beads or can you use any plastic beads?
I think you need to use Perler Beads. I’ve heard of people trying other kinds and having horrible luck. I hope that is helpful. Let me know how it turns out.
I have a question about these bowls….ours sort of turned out….but as mentioned by Claudia above, our beads also spread out & turned into big “o”‘s, so it is not as “tight” as it would be otherwise if they melted together like when you iron them. they are perler beads but are several years old – not sure if that makes a difference?? also I have a gas oven & thought maybe the heat was too high/hot? so I tried again on a lower temp to see if they would melt more normally, but came out the same. : ( but I was also wondering about the cooking spray – they came out w/ a little prying around the edges, but the bowls are a little greasy – did you wash yours off at all?? thanks – I found your site thru links from all free kids crafts emails I started receiving & have enjoyed what I’ve looked at so far!
Hello Elizabeth! Thanks for your questions and kind words. I would just wash them off from the cooking spray. I actually just was working with another Perler Bead project today, so I feel a little more equipped to answer your questions as this other project was quite a while ago. I have found that certain colors (and I’m predicting different brands) melt differently. I found some to be tight and some to be larger O’s as you mentioned. I guess I just felt fine with those results. The bowl definitely won’t be leak proof and the variety just gives a different look. Here is a link to a placemat I did a while back, and you can see a lot of variety – https://meaningfulmama.com/2012/08/day-227-perler-bead-placemats.html. I hope that has been helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions.
I am a 71 yr old great grand…We lived in New Orleans in the early 70’s and had loads of Mardi Gras beads….We used metal cookie cutters or did a design on a piece of wood w/gold braid and straight pins, cover the wood w/foil…fill the design up w/the desired colors and melt in the oven…The Mardi Gras beads do have an odor but open up the house. We still have a tree, candy cane, wreath and a bright yellow star that hang on our trees.
That’s a really fun idea. I think I’m going to try it. I have heard you can do things in the bbq to prevent the smell from destroying your home. I will need to try this. Thanks for the idea.
Greetings Jodi,
I love your site for all the wonderful crafts you offer & simplify for us!
But also because of your sincere spirit that is in each reply to our questions & comments.
Thank you for taking your precious time to help us out when we reach out to you!
WARNING: I can’t STRESS THIS ENOUGH; Mothers of infants children and anyone really with or without kids: DO NOT BREATHE IN ANY OF THE FUMES FROM BURNING PLASTIC AS IT ACTS AS A NEURO-TOXIN AND BE MUCH MORE HARMFUL THAN YOU MIGHT THINK. CHILDREN ESPECIALLY AND INFANTS SHOULD NEVER BE IN A HOUSE WHERE PLASTIC FUMES ARE BEING CREATED IN THE OVEN BY MELTING PLASTIC OR ANY OTHER CRAFT THAT HAS AN ODOR OR FUMES!!!
LIVER & KIDNEY DISEASE IS THE FIRST RESULT!
I KNOW, FROM HAVING HAD AN ACCIDENT.
THERE IS A TEA CALLED EYEBRIGHT TEA FROM ASIA AVAIL. @ AMAZON OR ONLINE, THAT TOTALLY HELPED ME OUT AFTER MY ACCIDENT. YOU CAN DRINK 3 CUPS OF IT DAILY AND IT GENTLY CLEARED THE TOXINS FROM MY LIVER & KIDNEY & BLOOD.
GOOD FOR ANY TYPE OF CHEMICAL OR PLASTIC TOXICITY PROBLEM.
WHEN MAKING THIS LOVELY CRAFT, VACATE THE HOUSE WITH A TIMER & VENTILATE COMPLETELY, WITH FANS AND WINDOWS OPEN AND STOVE EXHAUST FANS ON, WEAR A MASK & SAFETY GOGGLES AS THE FUMES EASILY PENETRATE YOUR BODY VIA YOUR EYEBALL TISSUE AND CAN THEN ENTER YOUR BRAIN TISSUE.
STAY OUTSIDE AS IT BAKES THEN RUSH IN WITH MASK & GOGGLES ON & HOLDING YOUR BREATH, TAKE THEM OUTSIDE AND LET THEM COOL OUTSIDE.
DON’T REENTER THE HOUSE FOR AT LEAST 60 MIN. IF POSSIBLE WHILE ALL THE FANS ARE FUNNING AND ALL WINDOWS ARE OPENED.
I’m writing because I didn’t want you all to make the mistake I did. I had Liver damage,
my liver on your right side below your ribcage was very tender and swollen and my eyelids and eyes were all red ~ like a raccoon but in red/purple, for 4 months, not a good look plus my eyes were discharging 24/7. Little by little over 12-16 weeks the red faded once I started drinking this gentle yet amazing tea. I would recommend it for anyone feeling “Liverish” also which means short fused, bitchy, not loveable or loving. These symptoms mean that your Liver is stagnant and thats why we feel major off-track and not like our usual self.. Sort of like an alcoholic does after drinking = short fused! For more clarity and info on this and many more topics of interest concerning your health ~ see: Paul Pitchford’s book: “Healing With Whole Foods.” it’s at all libraries, has a great chapter on: feeding infants children, women’s health issues, seniors, Candida, essential fatty acids and more! and it also has a cookbook in the back!
Wishing you all the best as you enjoy your children as they quickly and wonderfully grow up!
Emily
P.S. As mentioned below, you can bake these in a toaster oven outside which will simplify the whole project and avoid any safety issues. Just make sure your bowl fits in the toaster oven!
Thanks so much for this. It’s a good reminder to use the alternative methods for doing the plastic cooking outside if concerned.
This is such a fun project with kids. Is this maybe the original project you were trying to find on Pinterest?
http://club.chicacircle.com/melted-bead-bowls-diy/
Your bowls turned out great.
This was actually the original picture I found: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/36943659413110333/. When I click on that it goes back to a page that it says no longer exists. I don’t know. I love seeing yours though. What a fun idea to do an more monochromatic version. Thanks for stopping by!
I have used transparent pony beads, I put them into a cake pan, bake at 400 for about 10 minutes (outside) and then take the melted plastic out of the pan. You can then lay it on top of a smaller pan… pot pie sized works great. Re heat until the plastic flexes and droops… Remove and use a heat proof glove or potholder to “encourage” the bowl to form… Once it cools, you can just pop out the pan.
You can leave the discs flat at the end of the first step, drill a small hole and hang for suncatchers!!
Have Fun!
The bowl with transparent pony beads would be super cool. I actually just did a google image search, and I love the results! Great ideas. I had seen the sun catchers too. It’s so fun to see all the varieties. Thanks so much for commenting. This is a must do for us.
I was so inspired by this post! Love the bowls your girls made! I thought this would be a good 4H project for my son. I’m glad to say it was very successful and he really enjoyed it. The results are spectacular. I linked to this post here: http://www.thingstoshareandremember.com/perler-bead-basket/ Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed making these. They turned out so beautiful. I love the monochromatic approach.
Where do I buy Perler Beads? Do I go to Michael’s, AC Moore, where
Is Perler Beads a brand name or a type of bead? Thank you
I got mine at Michael’s. We don’t have an AC Moore. You can also find them on Amazon: http://goo.gl/SjMjmw I hope that’s helpful.
I just found this posted here: http://blog.dormify.com/diy/diy-bead-bowl 🙁 FYI in case you didn’t know.
Thanks for letting me know. 🙁 I’ll go try and get them to remove this.
Melting plastic. This cannot be good to breathe….especially young children!
About how many beads were in that bowl? How many bowls do you think you could get out of the large container? I’m thinking of X-mas gifts and wanna know how many of those large containers to buy…
Ooo – That’s really hard to estimate. I can tell you that I have done four projects with perler beads. The bowls (2 of them), bracelets – https://meaningfulmama.com/2012/12/day-347-plastic-perler-bead-bracelets.html (3 of them), salt dough ornaments – https://meaningfulmama.com/2014/01/salt-dough-perler-bead-valentine-ornaments.html and placemats -https://meaningfulmama.com/2012/08/day-227-perler-bead-placemats.html (2 of them). I had a container with 11,00 pieces. I have just over half of the container left. I would estimate that one container would at least make 10 bowls. That’s an estimate though. I hope that helps a bit.
THis is SO helpful, thank you! I love the links you shared. What great ideas!
Glad it helped. Thank you so much!
OMG!!! How adorable is this–I cannot wait to make this with the little ones!
Thank you for such a wonderful idea!
You’ll have a lot of fun with it. I’m glad you found this project. Thanks for checking in. 🙂
What temp do you cook the oven to?
Bake them at 375 for 12-14 minutes. I start keeping my eye on it at 10 minutes. It’s fun to watch anyway. I hope you enjoy it!
You forgot to spray the inside of the cookie cutters with Cooking oil spray.
I think you must be thinking of another post. I didn’t use cookie cutters for this one, but you are right that if you were doing cookie cutters you should spray them.
Great idea!
I like blog, thanks!
Thanks so much! Glad you like the idea.
Would these be safe to serve food in?
They are not leak proof or food grade. I am not super paranoid about it, so I probably would serve something that wasn’t liquid. I guess it probably just depends on your own personal conviction. You could always put a piece of parchment paper or a napkin in it if you are concerned. Have fun with it.
These were so easy to make and turned out really cute!! Kids will give to relatives and friends for Christmas!! Thanks for the info!
I’m so glad you had fun with it. Thanks for reporting back! 🙂 Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
I know this is such an old post but I am going to try it for the first time. I have read most of the experiences and feel confident that it will work out. The button lady never did comment back? THAT would have been interesting?
I DO want to try something else. I want to use TWO bowls? I want to spray the bottom bowl lightly, fill with beads then spray bottom of nd bowl (same size) and place it on top of the beads to flatten. I want to see if it will allow to add more beads and to flatten the inside? See how that will turn out?
Let me know about your experiment with it. Sounds like a good idea to me. I’d love to know how it turned out.
Perler beads are the only ones that are designed to be melted. Pony beads should never be melted!!!
Interesting – I’ve seen it done before and made into sun catchers. If you are concerned about the odor, one trick is to do them outdoor in a fas grill. I’ve never done it, but I’ve heard it works. It keeps all the fumes outside.
I just made a large bowl with my 3 and 5 year old grandchildren. It was great fun, easy to make and it turned out lovely. I used a large pyrex bowl. I bought a container of 22,000 beads and I used less that 1/3 of them – less than the 11,000 the directions called for. I used veg cooking spray. I was worried that the beads would be hard to remove since my bowl had straight sides unlike the more curved sides that you show, but everything came out without a problem. It’s hard to find things for the really young where they can say they did the work, so this was much appreciated. Thanks so much.
I love that you are spending this time with your grandkids and looking for fun ways to engage with them in creative ways. Thank you for that. Thanks so much for sharing your success story too. What a blessing to hear about how my content is being used and enjoyed by others. 🙂 I hope you find more here to do with them. This might be a fun one for Valentine’s Day: https://meaningfulmama.com/marbled-valentine-heart-with-shaving-cream.html
What about chemicals released from the melted beads and oven contamination?
I hear your concern. Some have opted to do it in an outdoor BBQ because of these very concerns. Hope that helps.