DIY - Sun catcher

Oh goodness! I haven't posted anything in over a month!  I've come to realize that working full time makes it a little harder for me to thrift store shop and blog about my cool finds.  I usually work 9-5 and those are the same hours most thrift stores are open so that puts a damper on my fun. But in the evenings I have plenty of time to surf through Pinterest and find some awesome ideas.  

Recently I found a neat idea for a sun catcher made from plastic beads.  The directions were simple enough, pour plastic beads into a cake pan (no liner required) and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. This project sounded super simple and since I had all the materials at hand I thought I would give it a try. 

I had a huge bag of beads handed down from my mother (she makes jewelry and these beads were leftovers from her) and I knew there would be plenty of plastic beads.  I had to go through the beads though because I found out a lot of them weren't plastic.  It took A LOT more beads than I had originally thought.  But of course you can use whatever size of pan you'd like. 

 Before I put them in the oven and the bowl of non-used beads.  

I tried to use bright colors and stay away from darker colors.  I used all sizes and shapes of beads. 

So, the directions online said to bake for 20 minutes.  I ended up baking mine for almost an hour; I guess it was because a lot of my beads ended up being non-plastic and didn't melt or took longer too.  

One thing the directions did not mention was the smell!  The plastic smelled pretty bad melting. :( 

I waited for the pan to cool and then the sun catcher just popped right out.  Since I used such a variety of beads, my sun catcher turned out looking nothing like the one I saw on Pinterest. 

 Here it is hanging on our porch.  I just used some fishing line to hang it up.  It looks better far away then it does close up.  I'm going to try another one, but for the next one I plan to go buy some beads (when they go on sale of course, or at a thrift store!) that are the plastic you can see through. 

This was a fun little project for me, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the results.  That is the risk you take doing DIY projects. Just remember the fun is doing it- who cares if it doesn't turn out perfect. :)