Practical Uses for Perler Beads

If your kids are anything like mine, they get a real kick out of creating perler bead designs.  Sure, sometimes they sit there, piling up, waiting for me to iron them.  Sometimes, they will accidentally get knocked over and beads will get strewn everywhere.  I digress.  I love my kids crafts, I really do, but sometimes you just want to scream, "Stop the madness!!"  How many different colors and variations of a perler bead cupcake do I need?  One.  The answer is one. 

So, I started thinking.  Surely, there has to be something I can do with these things?  Anything?  I started looking up perler bead designs my boys could make that would actually be relevant to them.  For example, I found so many for Minecraft.  These are perfect considering the pixelated nature of the whole Minecraft phenomenon.  These ones tend to be my favorite (please see below for what to look up on Pinterest).  I also looked up Pokémon and found a ton of designs for that.  So, now that I had found some designs that are completely relevant to my boys, I needed to figure out what to use them for.  I had initially made myself a little keychain out of one of the cupcakes.  Alas, it wasn't to be.  My keys are thrown around too much and that little cupcake ended up breaking.  Shucks.  I had to throw it out.  Not to worry, I have about 37 more waiting to replace it.

Here are some of the finished Minecraft perler bead designs my boys have done.  Notice some of them have holes in them?  More on that later.

I thought that these would be useful as bag tags, or added to a gift, or even as a necklace.  Yes, my son wore ALL of his Minecraft designs on a necklace.  He was a hit at school.  Everyone wanted it.  Here is the type of chain I bought.

The next part was to create a hole in the design.  My kids like their perler bead designs to be really melted together.  I mean, not like this. This was the very first one I had ever done and it is rather "pancakesque."  Big fail.  We keep it around just so we can laugh at it every once in awhile.

This part is easier if you don't melt them as much, so there is still somewhat of a hole there.  If not, do what I do.  Get a large paperclip, unravel it, and dig and turn into a corner.  Remember not to go too high up on the design or it will break easier (like my cupcake).  Once your paperclip goes through, you can feed the chain through.

Here are a couple of the ways I have used the ones on the chain:

1) Bag tag for a pencil case

I was looking for a case for both of my son's DSes.  I found these at the Dollarama.  They were perfect, but I knew that the boys would mix them up as they only had one colour.  You know, all hell would break lose around here should something like that happen.  So, to avoid the confusion, I used one of my new handy dandy tags.  Seriously, this worked like a "charm" (see what I did there.  I know.  Impressive).  I also thought these would work really well on pencil cases and backpacks.  I put one on my younger son's bag, but he was really worked up at the way the kid's were eyeing his necklace and he was worried it was going to get stolen.  Worry wart.  It isn't like there isn't one waiting in the wings to replace it.

2) Necklace

I mentioned this one already.  My 7 year old LOVES his Minecraft necklace.  He is the envy of all the other game obsessed little boys on the playground.  I think we may do a PacMan themed one next.  Remember to create the chain fairly long.  You definitely don't want this too tight around your little one's neck.  I also made him remove it or tuck it in if he was on the play structure.

3) Gift Bag

I love this idea too.  It just adds a nice touch.  You can "theme" it too.  This gift happened to be for a gamer.  I can imagine the girl's ones would be a lot of fun too.  What the recipient does with the tag after this point is up to them! Your work is done.

These ideas don't involve the chain.

4) Coasters

These are drink coasters for my boys' bunk buddies, or wherever we happen to need them.  They are from the ever so popular Pokémon.  It's a Pokeball.  Yeah, I'm not sure either.  All I know, is that if you ask a kid, they definitely know what it is.  My boys love these.  I found them neat, because they aren't just random beads melted together in a circle, but something meaningful (at least to the boys).

5) Magnets

My little guy has a big magnet board attached to the back of his desk.  We just used some magnetic strips from the Dollarama that have a sticky side.  I ended up having to glue the sticky side.  Note: Dollarama sticky magnets aren't so sticky.

6) Envelopes

My son had a little girl's birthday party to go to, and I added this to jazz up the card.  I just slapped it on there with some tape. 1 cupcake down, 36 to go.  Grandparents really love these on cards too - a personal touch from the grandkids.

Now that I have uses for these, I don't mind ironing them as much!

What to search for on Pinterest: Minecraft perler bead designs, Minecraft hama bead designs, Pokémon perler bead designs, whatever interests your child
Will I make these again: Yes.  I am forced to.