How to make a colorful melted bead suncatcher mobile from plastic pony beads. This is such a fun craft to do with kids & makes a great decoration or gift!
We have made several rounds of the melted bead suncatchers since first posting about them and Maia wants to do even more!
This has been such a fun and popular crafty activity in our house.
A good friend is about to have a baby so we decided to take advantage of our current melted bead suncatcher craze to make a baby mobile out of them—one that is colorful and catches the light beautifully.
Here’s how we did it…
A Melted Bead Suncatcher Mobile with Fun Shapes
- Translucent plastic pony beads
- And/or glitter pony beads
- Metal cookie cutters
- Metal baking dishes, including a pie pan
- Gas grill
- Electric drill
- String
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Arrange pony beads within cookie cutters
To begin, we arranged our pony beads into the suncatcher shapes.
This time, in addition to the cake pan and muffin tin suncatchers that we’ve done before, we tried some metal cookie cutters for fun shapes. As before we used translucent pony beads
(the opaque ones don’t work for suncatchers).
I wasn’t sure the cookie cutter idea would work—I half thought that all the plastic would melt out of the bottom—but really wanted to give it a try.
They worked, though!
There was a tiny bit of leakage, but not too much.
Maia picked out the cookie cutters she wanted to use and I set them on a baking dish to provide a bottom for the cookie cutters.
Maia was in charge of the cookie cutters and the cake pan suncatcher (above). She mixed all the beads together this time rather than trying for specific colors or patterns.
Daphne proudly made the little, round muffin tin suncatchers.
(She piled the beads in generously; I took a few out when she wasn’t looking to keep it to a single layer. I was worried that they wouldn’t melt readily with too many.)
Step 2. Melt the bead suncatcher shapes
Once we had our pony beads arranged in a single layer in baking dishes and metal cookie cutters, we melted them on the grill. It took us about 10 minutes last time we did this (with just one pan), but this time we put all three dishes on the grill at once and it not only took longer, but we had to keep rotating them since the outer edges didn’t melt nearly as quickly.
So, if you melt your suncatchers on the grill, learn from our mistake and just do one or two pans at a time and get them as close to the center of the grill as possible.
Step 3. Cool and Drill
Next, we removed the new suncatchers from their molds and drilled holes.
After the melted beads cooled, they popped out of the muffin tin and cake pan as easily as before. The cookie cutter shapes did not pop out as easily (and two of them never came out).
Harry drilled holes in them as he did with the first round of melted bead suncatchers. Each small shape got one hole and the cake pan suncatcher got five holes around the perimeter and one in the center.
Step 4. Assemble the mobile
Finally, we assembled the baby mobile with string.
The idea for the baby mobile was to use the big cake pan suncatcher as the top and hang all the little shapes from it. (You could also do this with an embroidery hoop at the top.)
After I struggled with knots coming undone, Harry called me knot-challenged (hmmph!) and took over the assembly himself. He hung the top part from the bedroom ceiling and worked from there. It came together beautifully!
Maia is looking at it from a baby’s perspective (above).
The mobile is really lovely hanging in the light, though! I hope that this new baby will be able to look up at it in a sunny window spot and enjoy the sunlight shining through the colorful melted beads.
We presented the suncatcher mobile to our friend over the weekend and are waiting to hear about new baby news any day now.
Btw, if you’re looking for MORE melted bead suncatcher ideas, I have lots!
9 Melted Bead Suncatcher Ideas
- How to Make Melted Bead Suncatchers (Basic info for getting started)
- How to Make Melted Bead Art (Free Form and Abstract!)
- Beautiful Free Form Hearts
- Melted Bead Stained Glass in Frames — Mondrian Style!
- Melted Bead Suncatcher in an Embroidery Hoop Frame
- A Melted Bead Jack-O-Lantern Suncatcher
- Melted Bead Words
- DIY Fairy Wand
- Melted Bead Suncatchers 7+ NEW Ways (Includes ornaments, die-cut wood frames, spiral mobiles, and shapes within suncatchers)
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56 Comments
Ann
July 18, 2012 at 11:09 amSuper! I wanted to try after your first post but was leary of the smell in the kitchen but on the grill is such a great idea. Will try this weekend.
Kim
July 18, 2012 at 11:19 amI love this idea but we do not have a gas grill, can I do this inside???
Dena
July 18, 2012 at 1:04 pmThese come out so attractive, lots of natural light able to come through! I really need to try this one, just have to find a way to do this outside! Maybe I can borrow my mom’s toaster oven? That should work, right?
BTW, bought a set of sharpies and doing the contact paper stickers today!
Willow
July 18, 2012 at 3:16 pmWonderful!! Love your blog and am always coming and seeing what lovely projects you are doing so I can do them with my daughter while my son naps. I just rarely get the chance to leave a comment. But you are much appreciated :-) Thank you.
Dagny
July 18, 2012 at 5:28 pmWe made a whole bunch of there sun catchers, but we placed a metal rivet in each muffin tin before baking. That way we didn’t have to drill holes. See how they looked at whatdidudo2day.blogspot.com
Jean Van't Hul
July 18, 2012 at 2:18 pmThe grill is definitely the way to go if you have one!
Jean Van't Hul
July 18, 2012 at 2:19 pmYou can (and we did the first time: https://artfulparent.com/2012/06/making-melted-bead-suncatchers.html) but be sure to ventilate well and perhaps take the kids outside while you do it. You can also maybe use a toaster oven and just take it outside.
Jean Van't Hul
July 18, 2012 at 2:20 pmAwesome! So glad you’re trying the contact paper stickers! Yes, I think a toaster oven should work. If you try it, will you let me know how it went?
Liisa
July 18, 2012 at 9:26 pmLove this! Can’t wait to try it…we only have a charcoal grill, will let you know if there are any quirks with that. Thank you!
Jane
July 18, 2012 at 11:07 pmThis craft looks SOOO cool!
I just wanted to make sure that someone mentioned that melting plastic can be dangerous (as certainly bad stuff will off-gas especially at high temperatures). The grill idea sounds like a good choice as it will be outside! I would not do this inside especially around kids. I would also mention that small birds are particularly susceptible to plastic fumes and it will kill them. Sorry to be safety lady… but just wanted to remind folks.
sÉCO
July 19, 2012 at 8:03 amOh this is sosss poetic. I have seen lots of people melting beans but nothing is as aerial as your mobile.
Laura
July 19, 2012 at 11:11 pmI literally, just made this exact thing for my sister’s birthday on June 30! HA! I like that you used a large melted bead shape to hang everything from! Very cool!
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:56 amGreat minds think alike! I’d love to see a pic of yours!
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:57 amThanks!
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:57 amI know… That’s why we did it outside.
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:58 amYes, please let me know how it works with the charcoal grill!
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:58 amBrilliant!
Jean Van't Hul
July 21, 2012 at 8:58 amThanks so much, Willow!
Pink and Green Mama MaryLea
July 22, 2012 at 7:45 amDo the melting beads trash your pans or cookie cutters? The girls want to make these with daddy’s grill but I don’t want to ruin my cake and baking pans!
Shelly
July 22, 2012 at 11:16 pmI want to do this! Just one question (maybe two) 1. What setting was the gas grill set at? 2. Did you close the lid of the grill?
This is my first time to your blog and I LOVE it! Thanks so much!
Vanessa Willis
July 23, 2012 at 7:22 pmWe made these in our kitchen this afternoon. The smell wasn’t terrible until I opened the oven to check on them. Thanks for a fun idea.
Vanessa Willis
July 23, 2012 at 7:22 pmThey popped right off my pans without any damage
Debs- Learn with Play
July 24, 2012 at 7:18 amLove, love, love!
Leah B.
August 3, 2012 at 7:44 amSo cute so trying this with the kids. thanks
Pysselbolaget
August 17, 2012 at 3:29 amWe just love this craft and made a verson of it on our blog todag. We’ve liked back to you – hope you don’t mind! Have a look: http://pysselbolaget.se/2012/08/17/mer-smalta-parlormore-melted-beads/
[email protected] Baby Center Products
August 19, 2012 at 9:59 amI love this idea. Its great, eye catching for babies. Is there any other crafts that you can suggest using these beads?Thanks
Jennifer
August 23, 2012 at 2:20 pmI did this with my daughter and to avoid the smell we used roaster ovens and plugged them in outside on the porch!
Beth
September 7, 2012 at 6:52 pmI tried this and my caught fire on gas grill
Kelly
September 21, 2012 at 6:58 pmWe made these in our toaster oven on our front porch this afternoon–worked great! 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. We used metal tart pans to hold the beads. Thanks so much for the idea–the kids (and I) loved it!
MissTanai
November 29, 2012 at 5:26 amHave you heard of Magic Color-Changing Pony Beads? Hummm…
Dana
December 5, 2012 at 6:30 pmI am in the process of melting the sun catchers my kids put together in the muffin pans as I type this. I hope they come out as beautifully as yours did! We will be presenting them to the Grandmas for Christmas this year…and if they go over well, this might just become an annual gift, perhaps add more sun catchers to the first every year!
Beth
January 17, 2013 at 10:35 amI posted on the other blog entry, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to learn from my experience:
***JUST A WORD OF CAUTION!***
I did these with the kids and we put them out on the grill. The grill was not very hot (less than 300 degrees). Honestly, I got started doing something else….but it was not that long. WATCH YOUR GRILL! The next thing I knew there was black smoke billowing and all of the plastic had “vaporized” and the pan was on fire. There is plastic all over the inside of the grill.
I’m sure it would be fine if you just paid attention (which I did not – DUH!). But I just wanted to offer up my story as what *not* to do!
Amber
January 19, 2013 at 6:24 pmI bet putting a smallish metal grommet at the place where you which to hang it before melting would make a nice easy spot to hang it with
PaperBeau
February 11, 2013 at 5:00 amoff to buy beads immediately – this is a really awesome idea :)
erin
February 11, 2013 at 5:37 pmI wonder if a quick spray of pam or Crisco smear would help them remove from the cookie cutters…
Lori
March 12, 2013 at 8:20 amI made a few of these over the last couple of weeks and used my grill and they turned out perfect. Thank you for this wonderful idea! They look like glass suncatchers and look great in my windows.
Risley5
March 12, 2013 at 10:27 amErin, did you try it with the Pam Spray or Crisco? If so… Did it help the cookie cutters?
Tammy
April 16, 2013 at 2:36 amCan you use aluminum foil? I was thinking this would make great bracelets and earring designs!
Lynley
April 18, 2013 at 7:33 amMy daughter wanted to buy a sun catcher at school that looked like these. I am so doing this with her!!!
Brenda
April 26, 2013 at 7:55 pmI couldn’t get the beads to pop out after they cooled!
Tia Jackson
May 5, 2013 at 3:16 pmThese are going to make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts for my class, I so glad I found your blog :)
Linette
June 3, 2013 at 12:13 pmPam worked great! Just coat the inside of the cookie cutter and the top of a cookie sheet. Suncatchers popped right out. We did it on a charcoal grill, and it took forever, but it worked perfectly. I threw in some of the glow in the dark pony beads and love the way they glow at night. You could make a star mobile for a toddler, or even the planets, and I bet they would love to look at it during bedtime.
lindsay
June 15, 2013 at 1:04 ami have these smaller plastic beads i was wonderin if i could use those…i kno id need a ton to fill but thats what i got a ton been sittin in my closet for yrs…i wish i could show a pic so ud kno which ones i was refering
Colleen Arnold
July 3, 2013 at 11:39 amMy grandkids are making sun catchers right now. We’ve already baked 2 big ones in the oven & they are awesome. We turned the vent fan on high & opened all the windows & turned on all the ceiling fans. We have NO smell in the house!!!!!! YEA!!! I have Grandma Camp every year. The kids are 14, 12, 9 & 7. It’s so much fun to have them without their parents!! We stay up till 11pm or so & hit the ground running at 7:30. It’s the best week of the year!!
Gina
July 12, 2013 at 11:48 pmAwesome idea! I was actually going to try metal buttons. Have a counter top oven so plan on using that outside
Gina
July 12, 2013 at 11:52 pmI was wondering the same thing but kinda like the metal on them make christmas ornaments
Rosina
July 16, 2013 at 11:46 pmPlease can you tell me why I have a lot of bubbles in mine.
What am I doing wrong please I love this craft I
have made 37 different things so far.
This has an endless possibly of uses.
Thank you for sharing it with the web.
God Bless.
Please send a reply to
[email protected]
Paige
July 30, 2013 at 2:47 amSo awesome! I love your blog and your ideas.
Brenda
July 31, 2013 at 10:51 amThese have been fun to make and get lots of positive responses to them. I use a counter top convection oven set up out doors. If it does not turn out like I want then I melt them again using a few more beads.
Two questions:
1) Is there a way to not get small bubbles in the sun catchers?
2) Have made several bowls by spraying pam into the bowl I am using so it will hold in place while melting. Can be used as colorful nut and candy bowls. My question is has anyone tried putting these in the dishwasher to clean?
Thanks for sharing the fun!!
Melanie
August 12, 2013 at 9:59 pmI am so excited to do this. I’m having a sleep over party for my granddaughters birthday, and this is a project we are going to try. I really like the shape idea any thoughts on how it might work better?
Robyn
August 18, 2013 at 1:54 pmLove this! I teach high school teen parents and I’m going to let them make this for their baby!
SHERRY MATTHEWS
August 23, 2013 at 10:17 amI LOVE THESE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Roxie
August 25, 2013 at 10:35 amso, a few things (I apologize if they have already been mentioned here) this is what I quickly learned after reading every blog and trying this once thus far:
They DO NOT ‘stick’ to your pan, cookie cutters, foil etc…
yes, it takes a lil prying to get it out of the cookie cutter, so use sturdy ones if u hav em. So don’t use cooking spray! Theres no need, and wouldn’t it discolor the plastic? ehf.
note:OVER cooking the plastic (hard2do if ur watching them) will start2leave a burnt color on ur shape. This happened to 1, i think it was right over the heating element.
I have read some pages that state that a residue or some sort of discolor was left on their pan…
Mine didn’t do that…perhaps their oven was too hot?
So IMO- go to the dollar store and spend $5 on a huge TOTALLY FLAT from end2end&NOT ROUND CORNERS cookie sheet that is just for this, because lets face it your gonna make a ton of this stuff. Also I think the LIGHTER color pans r better. It maybe in my head. either way they r cheaper.
I personally prefer my GLASS pans! IF there is any plastic left behind, I can flick it off w/my nail and NOTHING is left for my nxt meal chemical or otherwise. Plus I can observe the whole process better in glass.
I HATE using the foil! it leaves one side BUMPY and I thought perhaps it would b cool for my xmas tree ornaments to have texture, no it still didnt look good. PUT THE SHAPE BACK IN A FLAT PAN (again glass is great4 this) and RE-melt it. the other side will smooth out, it wont loose shape, at most it will just ‘soften’ your edges as long as u dont 4get& over. cook it. I found that I can do multiples just spaced a lil bit apart and smooth them all at once in the same pan…really simple. *Melt shapes together? hmmm…I feel a sun catcher collage coming on!
Only use the foil if your scared u MAY get a residue in your nice NON stick pan…another theory I have is maybe the non stick (and high temps?) r more likely to have the residue issue that few had…anyway, no foil it sux. :)
MAKE A BOWL/sculpture you’ve seen this-Make the huge disc, then put it on a glass or metal bowl and let it make a bowl shape! Look these up, I have no time for instruction. They r SUPER COOL!
YOU can USE GLITTER BEADS and GLOW IN THE DARK etc!!! I am going to try ADDING just GLITTER halfway through the melting! I think it will work well :) and be as sparkly as I like.
I am doing a baby mobile also, But using a angle food cake (what’s that called ‘bunt’?) lol so there is a whole in middle (more visually interesting) of disc that shapes hang from, ALSO going2incorporate ‘sparkle’ and glow in dark beads(they come in colors too so not 2take from ur daytime appearance)baby will love this!!
On baby mobile: note NOT to make it too thin, must be sturdy n not brittle- make sure your string/ribbon/etc securing system is never gonna give out and land on said child…put some thought in2 this hanging process. Perhaps u would need 2 dremmel any sharp edge? Or make sure its not hung within reach… remember, maybe u can ‘soften’ your edges 2 sum extent by remelting w/o form.
*if u have sharp edges from cookie cutter seepage, this wont work for them, i would break them off FIRST, them try remelting if u don’t have a tool to round them out.
*wrap cutters in ‘smooth’ foil so they don’t seep, then re-melt to fix the foil texture issue.
IF you stand the beads ON THEIR SIDE and still tightly pack them, u get a THICKER, denser(color wise) product. Mine was like 1/8″ thick! (could diff thicknesses produce wind chimes?) *If you lay them flat and tightly pack you get a decent, sturdy ‘standard’ thickness, *IF you lay them flat and just space them EVER SO SLIGHTLY you get a still ‘sturdy’ but thinner, lighter in color…u get the idea.
I READ that the translucent beads don’t have strong enough color and that the DARKER colors should be used for the SEE-through color effect….NOT TRUE :( mine CAN show color thro them, they would be GREAT for a cool lamp shade or something, but the color is much too dense for the sun/outside use.
PERHAPS a mix of dark and trans. beads would look great! (again if I thin them out, it may be more sun catcher friendly)
~I have one of the cheap, plain outdoor lights on my porch that has the SQUARE or nearly square plastic panels that cover the bulb? These panels r very thin, but they come out…I could easily trace them, make a ‘mold’ and make custom plastic panels for my outdoor lights…party themes? mood lighting? holidays? WHAT! Yes, these could surely last all yr outside.
~Do u have light fixtures that r just a large ‘plate’ like thing that has a hole in middle and gromet that screws on n holds it up? Usually kitchens have these-remove& fill the GLASS plate w beads n make a colorful fixture2match ur decor! Dont do this if its not glass/heat proof hello.
I used the METAL bead idea for the hanging- heres wht i learned…
I thought the pony beads would thin out more, so i was being ‘smart’ and got metal beads that r thinner so they didnt stick up highr than the melted plastic, they were too thin and didnt show THROUGH both sides of the plastic. (i placed the metal bead ON TOP of the layer of plastic, so it would hopefully melt dwn in2 the exact spot i desired it-I think this will work fine nxt time) I did try 2make my cookie cutter shapes ‘dense’ though since i had read that u loose color when they melt. *but nxt time I STILL think the standard width bead is best for my metal ones so they can actually do their job in making a hanging hole.
_I got metal star beads (the hole goes through the wrong way) cuz they look cool(they r much heavier quality&sit nicely on the bottom of pan) and i used this on my xmas tree ornament shape i put star twards top of tree but it was well surrounded by plastic as i laid it within the plastic bead layer this time. Again, I made the plastic somewhat DENSE and when melted, the metal star actually has a small accessible hole that i COULD get a large needle/string through if I wanted, but the bead hole is mostly filled w/plastic since it faces the wrong way.
*this is the ‘textured’ tree I re-melted on a flat glass pan. BTW the RE-MELTING takes about the same amount of time as the initial-the plastic still has to reach ‘that temp’ that makes it liquid like…a few minutes less may do it so pay attention.
I will stop here lol-
LASTLY, I saw this craft and a few days later to my LUCK! I saw a TOASTER OVER in the FREE stuff on Craigslist! yay mee! I reccomend u hit a few THRIFT STORES and yardsales, post a WANT ADD on CL! Get a toaster oven so u can do this outside and SO conveniently!!
Clean up was so quick with my toaster oven, a cupcake pan holding all my diff beads for picking, and some cheap pliers to break off edges&grab hot pans&in case i must ‘pry’ a shape frm cookie cutter’ and a larger foil covered pan(just in case) to hold my cutters, finished products etc.
*u can do this project in 15-20 minutes bake [email protected] (in my toaster. I actually preferred 425-450 for a smoother look) and 5MINUTES too cool!! DONT rush the cooling!! If it fully cools, it comes apart easy! It will make crackling noises as it cools&seperates slightly from pan. Then 3minutes to bring everything inside!
Thanx4READING & learning w/me!
Roxie
August 25, 2013 at 10:39 amlol I 4got-
You CAN do free form shapes with no mold on a flat pan…just make sure the beads r tight together on the pan. You get a more organic edge…good for flower designs and such
Edi Tipton
December 21, 2013 at 10:49 amThis is my second year of doing this. It was so much fun and I really didn’t have a problem with odor. I have given them out at work as Christmas gifts to hang on their trees for now. Have told them they will get one the next 3 years and on the fourth year they will get a bigger one to tie them to and make a suncatcher…
JJ
January 24, 2020 at 1:02 pmPutting cookie cutters in an oven will loosen the soldering on them. Use ones that are crimped.