Perler Bead Crafts with Lil' Man

So today I busted out my perler beads collection.  I was cleaning yesterday and found them stashed in the back in my craft room.  So today, lil' man and I play.

Here's what we made...

This is the finished product FRONT

This is the BACK.

 If you have never played with perler beads, they are so much fun. They are plastic beads that you put on a peg board and create all sorts of designs. Once you're done designing, you cover it with baking paper and iron it for a few seconds. Just enough for the beads to melt into each other. And that's it!

Today I wanted to try and make some St. Patty decorations using the beads but lil' man had other design ideas.

He just wanted to make color patterns.

Deciding if he likes what he made.

He does and keeps going. Looking good!!!

 Now I wanted to get into the bead designing action.  I had 2 types of perler beads. The typical small ones that are sold in stores, and the biggie size - great for smaller hands who are still mastering their motor skills.  Lil' man used the biggie size.

Here's the biggie size.

Here's the regular size - which I used.

Here's my attempt at designing a perler bead

shamrock.

I had to make the 3rd leaf separate because of the

pegs.  It just looked funky so I'll fuse them

in 3 steps.  Iron the bottom, iron the top leaf,

then iron them together.

And here's what I have. 

Not the best shamrock but it was fun.

Lil' man wanted to give the regular beads a try and

these are what he created.  The snake was made on

a square peg board.  The heart was done on a

heart board that he filled-in.

Hope you enjoyed!

Peechee