DIY DAY OF THE DEAD PERLER BEAD SKULLS.
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If you follow along on Instagram you might have seen that I've been reliving my childhood and playing around with Perler beads. They were one of my favourite crafts as a kid but I hadn't thought about them in years until I stumbled across a giant tub of them in Ikea.
For those of you that don't know Perler beads (also known as Hama beads or Pyssla beads in Ikea) are small plastic beads that you can arrange on a pegboard to form patterns and fuse together using an iron. If you're not sure where to start cross stitch patterns can be easily adapted and are the perfect inspiration. Do you remember my embroidered wall art I made the other week? I used a free embroidery pattern from DMC. Well, they also have a whole selection of cross stitch patterns including these fantastic Mexican Day Of The Dead Skull designs you can download for free. With Halloween right around the corner they seemed like the perfect inspiration for my next project.
SUPPLIES: Free Day of the Dead Cross Stitch Pattern, Perler Beads, Pegboard, Perler Bead Ironing Paper, Tweezers, an Iron and a heavy book.
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1. Arrange your beads in the desired design. Tweezers can help and these ones were designed to work with the Perler beads. I adapted my design slightly from the original pattern as my pegboard was slightly smaller then needed.
2. Carefully lay the ironing paper on top of your design.
3. Gently iron over the beads until you can see the beads melting and fusing together. I found ironing in a circular motion helped the beads melt evenly.
4. Leave to cool before peeling the backing paper away. If you peel it away too early I found some of the beads would stick to the paper. I know some people like to iron on both sides of their designs but I prefer the finished pieces when you can still the individual beads.
5. Place a heavy book on top of your Perler bead skulls to stop them curling and leave to cool.
6. Thread on some ribbon and hang as a decoration or use them as coasters at your next party.
You can find the other decorated skull designs below.
More Halloween Origami and crafts to keep you busy:
Make sure to check my other Halloween crafts and recipes for more spooktacular DIYs.
I've loved discovering these tiny beads again and now I've started it's hard to stop. They're such a fun and colourful craft and perfect for making these bright and highly decorated skulls.
