Remember friendship pins? My Tretorns were overflowing with them (did I just age myself there?). These giant friendship pins are a great craft party or sleepover activity, or you could give them out as favors. You could even skip the melting of the beads part, and just use the perla beads as they are. I like the melted version because they’re closer to the original 80’s version. Just be sure not to stick yourself with the pokey part of the pin!

Materials needed: oversize kilt pins, perla beads, toaster oven (not shown), parchment paper, cardstock flat cards, a printer (or stamps or markers), washi tape.

Step 1: Begin by choosing your bead colors.
Step 2: Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Carefully line up your beads so they are standing up.
Step 3: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat beads for 2 to 3 minutes. Watch them carefully! The goal is to melt them a little, but not so much that the hole is too small to fit on the pin. Let cool for a few minutes.
Step 4: Slide beads onto pin, and close pin.
Step 5: Print, or write, a message on the cards. I printed 3 cards at a time by taping the cards to a plain piece of paper and feeding it into the printer.
Step 6: Attach pins to cards using washi tape.

Photography by Tim Gibson