Make your own enamel dots with Lynn's tutorial

Hi everyone, Lynn here with you today. You may or may not have seen the various tutorials about your on enamel dots.

So this is not my idea - and isn't that annoying.

I decided, however, that I really wanted to try it for myself and then

why not share the experience with you, my scrappy pals.

I bought the pony beads at Michaels $3.99 a pack - I wanted to have different sizes

and I didn't want to be overwhelmed. You can also use perler beads, which they had for $6.99

and had about a bazillion beads in them.

(Those beads look the same to me).

As if 1,360 isn't overwhelming.

 The tutorials recommend you spread your beads on parchment paper

in cookie sheets, preheat your oven to 450 and bake for 30 minutes.

Weeellll.....

I did preheat the ole oven.

I did use parchment paper.

I did spread those babies out.

 Below is the result. 

I didn't spread them out enough. 

The beads have a tendency to move

during the putting them in the oven process.

Also, during the baking process when the pan "jumps."

And when the paper is isn't flat - it also moves the beads.

I also pulled them out of the oven after 12 minutes.

 There was a lot of melting together going on.

 Therefore, I did what most tutorials said to do, and laid them out

with lots of space between them, because they move.

Alot.

When you put them in the oven.

When the paper moves.

 I also learned to cut the parchment paper down so it 

doesn't curl up on the sides.

I switched the bigger beads to the bigger pan and

smaller beads to the medium pan. DOh!

And I also switched the big beads to the bottom rack and smaller to the top rack.

 I didn't change the temperature of the oven from 450 degrees

 but I did change the time from 12 to 8 minutes.

The brown beads that only come in the smaller pack - are not pretty. 

LOL. Just saying.

And they really didn't melt well.

Those couple of changes gave me much better results - 

and toward the last couple of batches,

I changed the time to 7 minutes.

 I also managed to cut myself on these bad boys - you can break apart

the ones that melted together but there are some sharp edges going on.

 I also found that the change in temperature to 7 minutes made the

small beads bake smaller.

The pans and parchments cool rather quickly - and that helps the process move along.

 These are the results - I have 1,360 small, medium and large sizes in various colors.

Does that rock or what.

And I kept some of the beads that melted together. They sort of look like molecules.

They are not all perfect - but that's part of their charm.

And here's the test - which ones are the ones I did hmmm???

Below are my dots used on a page in various places.

 So rounding up - 2 packs of beads for $8.00, 1.5 hours of time

I have 1,360 various colors of dots.

Or you can pay $4.99 a pack for 60.

ANSWER: The black, beige and white enamel dots are the ones I baked up.

I did have some trial and error going on - and I hope if you try it, I narrowed it down

some for you. 

My oven is a gas, convection oven and if you let the beads go too long they will burn.

I have no idea what the ovens in the tutorials were, but had I used their times

I'd have burned the house down.

It took about 1.5 hours to complete all 1,360 beads.

Even knowing that they rolled around, I still had to make myself NOT

fling a bunch on the pan. So don't do that.

Let me know if you make your own and how your experience went.