Based on message board posts and Pinterest, it seems like A LOT of crafters are making their own enamel dots out of Perler Beads. You remember those right? Use a peg board to create a design, add some heat, they melt, and ta-da, you have a cool plastic little toy!
A lot of the steps for making the enamel dots are the same as using the beads in the traditional way. There's tons of detailed tutorials already online, so I'll just give a quick summary (also shown in the following pictures).
- Start with preheating your oven to 300 degrees (low and slow is best)
- Lay down a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet (I held mine down with a couple cheap knives)
- Line up a bunch of Perler Beads (yes, this does get a little tedious)
- Gently put the cookie sheet in to the oven
- Bake until the beads are nicely rounded and no middle dimple remains (times will vary...my oven takes 30 minutes)
- Leave on the sheet until cool
- And, they're ready to use....pretty easy, huh?
And when you get tired of dots, try making flowers! The following were made with six of one color surrounding a single other color. I think they turned out pretty good!
I mentioned earlier it is a little tedious to line up all the beads. However, when I look at the cost of a pack of enamel dots vs. a pack of Perler Beads, I'll happily take the time to set up the beads!
Happy melting!
Happy melting!
