Kid Craft: Melted Bead Keychains

A few months ago, I was looking at Pinterest. Okay. I do that a lot, but not always when my kids are around. My daughter was looking with me and some fun sun catchers caught her eye. They looked pretty fun and easy to make, so we decided to give it a whirl. But instead of sun catchers, we wanted to put our own spin on it. We made Melted Bead Keychains!

These really are easy to make! Here's what you need:

A muffin tin and some plastic beads. Any plastic beads will work. We used clear ones so that the key chains would be see through.

I let the kids arrange the beads any way they wanted in the muffin tins. You can definitely tell the difference between my "attention-to-detail" daughter and my "go-with-the-flow" son. He was done placing his beads in a few seconds while my daughter took much longer!

A couple of tips:

• A single layer of beads seems to melt better (and more smooth!) We did some thicker ones, too. But our favorites were made with a single layer
• If you don't want to drill holes, just leave a space between some beads and a natural hole will form
• You can melt these in the oven, but during the hot summer months, you can also use your grill!

Once the beads are all place, put the muffin tin in the oven and melt them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Keep a close eye on them. It's fun to watch the progress!

After the beads are all melted. Let them cool off for a while. We cheated and stuck them in the freezer. Now  you can drill a hole for the key chain. Or use the hole you strategically made earlier! Either way works awesome.

This was a really fun project! We actually made these a while ago. They've held up really well and the kids seem to carry them almost everywhere! And since they're a key chain, they are fun to clip on backpacks!