Recently, we made the Perler Bead Bowls, which turned out great and were a lot of fun. The kids have loved having these bowls to store things. I had purchased a huge container of the beads, so I had a bunch left. I know they can make the normal stuff, but I began to think, “What else could I make out of these?” A placemat was one of my ideas, and it worked.
I took a jelly roll pan and placed a wooden dowel across the pan to create an edge for the beads to go up against. I also put down wax paper to prevent the beads from sticking to the pan. Next, we poured out the beads and patted them down flat with our hands. I baked it at 350 for 5-10 minutes. I removed the wooden dowel after 3 minutes so that the beads wouldn’t stick to the dowel but would stay in place in the pan. After 3 minutes, they had started to adhere to each other so the edge stayed nice and straight, and it was easy to remove the dowel at that time. I cooked mine for 7 minutes. I would say 5-10 minutes is a safe bet. Just keep your eyes on it. The kids love their new placemats.
This is so cool … great idea for so many uses!
This is such a fun idea!! I have to try this with my kids…My daughter has been asking for a fun placemat for herself for so long now….
Following you now through GFC…hope you can stop by sometime to see some of the work done by me and kiddos @ http://homekidsandcrafts.blogspot.com/
Very cool! We picked up perler beads at the craft store last week because one of my neighbors uses them with her kids. Of course, I forgot about them. Time to get out the beads!
Wouldn’t that store a lot of bacteria? Just wondering…
It’s plastic, so it’s completely washable (not dishwasher safe though). I hadn’t thought about it much, but I don’t imagine it would be a problem. Thanks for commenting.
Those are cool. It would be really fun for play dough play. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
omg i love them i made me and my little sis one they r soooo cool i alls so made the bowl love them!!!!!
Great idea. I made 2 and each time the waxed paper stuck to the beads. Any ideas?
Weird. I did not have any issues. Maybe parchment would work better.
I would try spraying it with cooking spray lightly before putting the beads on like when you make bowls?
That’s not a bad idea either. The wax paper worked well, but I’m sure cooking spray would do the trick. It definitely worked for the bowls. Thanks!
Lisa Shelton again. Your idea of using parchment paper worked!
Thanks for responding and for your help!
For the kids? To heck with that, I want to make these for myself! They’re so cool looking! Plus you could pick any color combo so you could make them match any decor or season…though I love the colorful rainbow one you did!
Thanks so much. Doing different color combinations is a great idea. Glad you are inspired. Thanks so much for commenting.
OMG! I am so in love with this idea! Now I wanna make everything of colourful beads!!!!
Thank you for sharing!!
Hugs from Brazil
Thanks so much! I can relate. I’m often thinking, “What else can I make?”
Do you know roughly how many beads you used? I want to try to make round placemats for my kitchen table and I’m trying to figure out how much to buy!
I’m not 100% sure. I bought this bucket of beads – http://goo.gl/x9Q5Na (affiliate) and I have made 3 bowls, 2 placemats and a few other smaller projects. I still have some of the beads left. I hope that’s helpful. Have fun! Are you going to do them in cake pans?
I’m trying to make round ones using a pizza pan! 🙂 I sprayed the dickens out of it with Pam like some other blogs suggested. It’s in the oven as we speak :). I have a big bag of mixed beads that’s 15,000…so I’m guessing around 1000 to 2000 beads for a 16 in diam round.
Let me know how it turns out. I hope it was great.
So cool! FORGIVE me asking but what is a jelly roll pan? Can I use like a regular rectangular pan? And can you use pam instead of wax paper? (You can tell I don’t do a lot of cooking lol) Thanks for the great ideas! Keep them coming!
Hi! Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I’m trying to get on top of things after vacation, and it is taking a while. A jelly roll pan is a rectangular pan with rims around so food (or in this case Perler Beads) doesn’t fall off the edges like a typical cookie sheet. I have used Pam while making bowls, so I’m pretty sure this will work just fine. Hope all this helps and wish you the best of luck.
I just made my first Pony Beads Suncatcher & followed the directions of the person who said she used Parchment Paper on the cookie sheet & guess what? It RUINED my first SunCatcher for the simple reason first, the paper became a PERMANENT part of the suncatcher which WON’T come off AND the metal hoop which was to be the frame came off the suncatcher, so now it’s unprotected.
Some people say: “Don’t use grease”, while others say, “Use oil”, or like this person, “Use parchment paper” & one other says, “Use Wax paper”. Which is it? Which one am I supposed to use? This is insane.
Hi! Sorry for your frustrations! I have used both parchment paper and cooking spray with success. I haven’t had the issues you are describing, so I’m not quite sure how to advise you. I’m so sorry!