Make It By The Book - Plastic Bead Bowl Project

My daughter requests to start painting or crafting shortly after finishing her breakfast most days and so I am always looking for new craft projects. One of the best resources of ideas I discover recently was the Make it by the Book (Craft Book) from Parragon Books. As a member of the Book Buddies team, I made a special request to get a copy of this book and I was not disappointed in the contents. There are 80 craft projects that all very creative and use different materials.
Some projects are rather quick and easy but other may need a little more time to complete. The projects in this book are more aimed at 5 years plus but with adult supervision some of the project could be adapted to Preschool age. The variety of ideas would make this book perfect for older children or crafty parents. I have feeling that we will be using this book as inspiration and tutorials for many years in the future.

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For your first project, we decided to create a bowl using Hama Beads - 3000 Glitter Mix (Midi Beads) but any fusible plastic beads will work. We used about 1,000 beads for this project. The first step was to spread some kitchen oil around the inside of the glass dish. We used a 5 inch glass bowl. 

We choose to randomly add colours of beads to create bowl but older children or adults may want to create some rows of colour or patterns. We added a handful of beads to the bowl to create a single layer of beads around the bowl bottom and edges. I found the easiest way to pile up the sides with a single layer of beads was to push down the beads at the bottom of the dish. By flattening the layer at the bottom of the sides, it would push beads up the sides. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Carefully put glass bowl on baking sheet and then into the oven for around 10 minutes. I just keep checking for the point when the beads looked melted but not overcooked. Remove from oven and let cool. 

The magic moment was quickly removing the colourful bowl from the glass bowl. My children loved looking at how the plastic melted together. They quickly discovered it would make a perfect hat.

I love when the sunlight shines on it because it looks like it is made of colour glass from across the room. We will definitely be making more of these bowls in the future for gifts for Grandparents or Mother's Day. 

We were sent these books as part Book Buddies Program with Parragon Books. All reviews are honest and my own words.

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