We have had more fun with Plastic Perler Beads. I haven’t ever actually used them for how they are intended. Maybe I need to do that. We did the Perler bowls and the Perler placemats, which proved fun. Now, it is on to bracelets. I saw this idea at a site called Craft and Creativity.
The first thing we did was set up our beads. Just set them all straight up with a little space between each one.
The next part is to bake them at 400 for 5 minutes. Now, I intentionally posted the picture above. Does anything look wrong? It didn’t work…at least most of them. When we baked them, I was watching the whole time. There were a handful of colors that worked perfectly. However, the other ones were not doing what they should. I just kept them baking for longer than the 5 minutes. The hole in the middle just started disappearing. Well, it was a sick day. Sitting and sorting beads didn’t seem too taxing, so we did it. We picked out all the clear, clear pink, dark blue, turquoise and tan. I don’t know why those colors seemed to work, but they did. The other site didn’t mention a thing about them melting weird. These are beads I bought at Michael’s just for a reference.
Ah, that’s better. That is what they are suppose to look like.
Obviously a blurry picture, but this is what the beads look like if you just cook them for 5 minutes. Kenzie decided she wanted to make her bracelet out of these ones.
Next it is time to string the beads. I didn’t have the kind of string she recommended, and I would recommend you get what she suggested. She suggested the stretchy string – like the ones candy necklaces are on. I didn’t have any of that on hand, and dragging a bunch of sickies to the craft store while I’m coughing up a lung didn’t sounds very appealing, so I used the wire we used to string the letters on my Christmas tree word decorations. I also had one set of clasps and more plastic type jewelry thread. We made one with that. I think I want to get the stretchy string for the rest of our beads. Way better choice.
Results are fun. I like the beads that melted a bit more, but they both work.
Even kids can make it….Wow!
All my colors of perler beads melted pretty good. I had trouble getting them off the parchment paper. I also tried Aluminum foil and the didn’t come off of there much better. Did anyone have any other suggestions?
Interesting. I have never had any issues with parchment paper. I guess wax paper would be my next try. I can’t get anything to stick to parchment paper though. Did you let it cool completely before trying to remove? This is a mystery to me. So sorry!