Perler bead ideas are a really fun and great way to spend some crafting time with your kids or let your kids craft on their own. These little beads can help with art skills, family bonding, reducing stress, and so much more. But what else can you do with them? There are so many perler bead craft ideas out there as well as ways to alter the process if you don’t have the supplies needed.
My Mini Perler Bead Ideas Guide
Supplies For Perler Beads
So you’ve spent time looking at perler beads ideas, and you really want to be able to make your own. What you’ll need for this craft project is the perler beads, a clothing iron, parchment or ironing paper, and some ideas or tutorials handy. You can purchase the beads in packages based on color or themes.
Some perler bead packs come with ideas or templates that you can use to inspire you. You also may want peg boards (which often come with the beads) because it helps keep perler beads in place while you’re making your design and ironing it.
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What Else Can You Do With Perler Beads?
If you’re trying to find some perler beads ideas that are less traditional to the traditional 2D designs, there are many out there! You can use perler beads to create some 3D objects and shapes like bowls or trays with tutorials. You can also make items like key chains or coasters as 2 dimensional creations.
Make outlines of shapes and glue them on top of each other to create a 3D cylinder or bod from the beads. There are so many perler beads ideas out there to expand on the limited uses most perler bead packages showcase.
How To Do Perler Bead Ideas Crafts
For the process of making perler bead creations, you arrange the beads on a pegboard or other surface in the pattern you would like. The beads should be standing upwards, as in you can see the holes in them on top. You then cover your piece with parchment paper or a substitute and iron over the paper.
Perler beads are heat activated, so the iron will make them melt slowly. Once they’re melted enough they will be connected together. You may want to check on the bead height or look through the paper in between the ironing to see when they’re done if this is your first time.
Can You Melt Perler Beads In The Oven?
Inspired by all of these perler beads ideas, but don’t have an iron to finalize your creations? No worries! You can actually use your oven to melt the beads together just like an iron can. In order to do this, you would have to use a metal shape to put the perler beads in such as a cookie cutter. Lay down parchment paper on a baking sheet, fill a metal or oven safe cookie cutter with the design you’d like your perler beads to be in, and place in a 400 degree Fahrenheit preheated oven.
The recommended time for baking is around 10 minutes, but keep an eye on your creation because you may need to add or subtract time from this to have the best results. Don’t remove your perler bead creation from the mold until everything is cooled down to avoid burns.
Can I Use Aluminum Foil For Perler Beads?
If you can’t find ironing paper or parchment paper for your perler beads ideas or creations, there are some ways to substitute this. If you’re using the oven method, you just replace the parchment paper with aluminum foil. Although, foil does conduct heat more and faster than parchment paper so it may alter your bake time or heating time.
Some say that the foil use when ironing your beads can cause some harm to your iron, but you are able to use it in the same way you use parchment paper for the bead heating process.
What Other Replacements for perler bead ideas Can I Use?
When making perler bead creations, you may need or want to replace some parts of the process due to what you have. For example, you can use a pan or baking sheet as a makeshift iron by heating it in the oven and holding it on the parchment paper over your beads like you would with the iron (not with your bare hands!).
You can also make your perler bead creations without a peg board by making them within a cookie cutter like in the oven idea above or making them on a flat baking sheet then covering them with parchment paper and ironing them accordingly. There are lots of ways to make your perler beads ideas a reality without the traditional supplies.
These neat little colorful beads can be a really fun and simple way to create all kinds of crafts, and the process is really flexible to what supplies you can use to make the craft solid. I hope this gives you some good perler beads ideas and knowledge to be able to create something on your own with these.
Your kids will love making cool pieces with perler beads, and it’s much less expensive than some arts and crafts out there.
The above content has been written by Jax, my content writing partner.
{oldest kiddo, my 2020 HS graduate}
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