Pony bead ornaments

Sloan and I were trying to figure out what we could do with all the beads we had in our craft drawer.  Instead of stringing a necklace all the way to China, we decided to try making ornaments or suncatchers. I think we will try our heart cookie cutters with pink, clear and red beads for Valentine's Day!


  For the project you will need:
Pony bead ( clear and colored )
regular muffin tin
drill and bit
ribbon
oven
crack a few windows :) Or not, I didn't think it gave off fumes at all but use your best judgement


Step 1 - Preheat your oven to 400 degrees,  take the beads and sprinkle them into the muffin tin to cover the bottom of each compartment.  You can make patterns or sprinkle them random, have fun with it.

 

Step 2- Place in the 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  Check on the beads once and awhile to ensure they are melting and when to take them out of the oven.

 

 

See the melted beads? Pretty!

 

Step 3- Let these babies cool off. I cheated and set mine outside to harden faster.  Once hardened just turn the pan upside down and tap them out.  You will have perfect little circles! I took my drill and put a hole at the top to string ribbon through :)

I tied some onto Christmas gifts and put some with tiny suction cups to have as suncatchers

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Mini Cupcake pan Advent Calendar

I wanted an advent calendar that wasn't chocolate with Avary's Galactosemia it just isn't an option. The chocolate ones are cute but lacked the meaning I was trying to get across too (Jesus is the reason for the season, not presents)
 I wanted to be able to create my own and personalize it to our family.  I looked at my mini muffin tin and realized it was 24 compartments.  I have seen people on Pinterest try to use 2 regular muffin pans but who wants huge pans hanging on your wall? And trying to join them together?  Not this gal :) No thanks!

 Supplies you will need

24 count mini muffin pan
ribbon ( to tie on top to hang)
Drill ( to add another hole on the top to hang ribbon from)
Drill bit
Adhesive magnet roll ( got mine at HL for $3.50 with half off coupon)
Computer and printer ( to make the 1-24 numbers and print them out)
Card stock ( to print numbers on)
circle punch ( mine is 2 inches)
Word on computer ( to create tags that go inside of tins and the numbers)
Command hooks ( optional )

A lot of supplies I already had on hand so this project cost me little to nothing to create.  If you do need to buy these things they are all something you would definitely use again :)

Take your Word program and make your 1-24 numbers.  If you don't have Word go online and search for numbers pictures and you will come up with a TON of free printables I am sure.

 Print out the numbers on card stock

Take the self adhesive magnet paper and peel off the backing.  Stick the numbers card stock on top of the adhesive side so the magnet will be on the back of the number once it is done

Take your circle punch and punch out all of your numbers

Take the Word program again and make 24 things to do for every compartment.  I made a lot of biblical ones to show the true meaning of Christmas.  Feel free to experiment and add candy, small treats etc in the compartments.  Use your imagination :)

Print out the list of the 24 things to do and cut them out

Fold all of the ideas and place each one inside the tin and cover with the 1-24 magnets

Drill your second hole at the top of the pan and loop the ribbon and tie a knot at each end to hang the advent calendar

Viola!  You have a calendar to use every year!  You can save your ideas for each compartment or do new ones each year

I organized my print outs in the order I wanted to do them.  ( I didn't want to camp out under the Christmas tree on a school night) LOL

Have fun!  Merry CHRISTMAS!

 Some examples of the print outs for the compartments,  I had read Luke 2 along with various christian related activities also.  Feel free to do one that suits your family :)

 The calendar with the paper's inside.  Sorry for the glare, the pan is of course shiny!

The calendar hanging on the wall. I use the 3m hooks that are removeable.  They ROCK!  I also let the girls take turns pulling off the magnet every day.