These beautiful Rainbow Hearts are perfect for Valentine's or Mother's Day & fun for all ages to create. I've made them several times now with groups of children of various ages & they're always a big hit, especially when they see the final result.
For our Rainbow Hearts we used: coloured transparent pony beads & metal heart-shaped tins (like these).
To make the hearts you only need to add a few beads to cover the base of the tin. I love that children can be as random or precise as they wish with the design, some take great care placing every bead to create a certain pattern while others add a random selection.
Once your design is finished carefully transfer your heart tin onto a baking tray & into the oven.
We use a small oven for this craft which we place outdoors. I wouldn't recommend melting the beads indoors as the smell of the melting plastic isn't pleasant.
Once your baking tray is in the oven set the temp to 180°C for around 5mins which should be enough time to melt the beads together. If your beads are not completely melted leave them for a couple of minutes but check them continually.
When the beads are flat & fused together, carefully remove the hot tray & leave to cool on a heatproof surface. When cooled, carefully tap the back of the tin & the rainbow heart should pop out!
We wanted to hang our heart on a window so I made a small hole in it by firmly screwing a bradawl through the plastic, alternatively, you could use sticky tape.
These look beautiful with sunlight through a window illuminating all the colours or outdoors in your garden hanging from a tree.