Bringing Minecraft Offline Again with A Fun Activity

I’ve written before about activities to do offline with our Minecraft obsessed kids.  Here’s a new one: Ironing bead creations.

What are these beads?  Commonly referred to as Perler Beads (the brand name) these small beads are used on peg boards and then with an ironing paper melted together.  They are very popular with the kids because the nature of the beads can look very 8-bit, just like old-school video games, as well as Minecraft.

After a successful playdate at a friends house where the kids created Perler Bead crafts, my son was hooked.  I found a set of beads at Ikea and picked them up on a whim.

This was nearly two weeks ago and there is rarely a day that goes by that my son (although my daughter enjoys it as well, he has shown more of an interest) works on a project.  He has spent hours some day doing this activity.  We search for designs online and then he replicates them as best he can.  I love how he has to concentrate, work on his fine motor and follow patterns to create the designs he wants.

Make your own Creeper!

Using only black and green beads, your child can make their own Creeper from the game, which is a really simple project to start with.  Count the beads to match the pattern.

Tips, from one parent to another

• No matter what you do, beads will end up all over the place.  Just go with it.
• You can buy beads that are already sorted by colour.
• If you iron too hot,the beads nearly stick to the peg board.  Iron on too low a setting and the beads will pull up and move
• If your beads move while ironing you need to put it back together before the child notices you have ruined everything! 😉
• For intricate designs, take a picture before ironing. That way, if you have to reconstruct, you know what it looked like before. (and can avoid the ‘why do I have extra beads?’ situation I had, plus the ‘what happened to his shoes?’ problem I also had.)
• The beads are super small, if you have wee ones be aware they are colourful and could look like candy.
• For ideas, search on google images ‘perler beads ____’ and whatever style you want.  ie) Super Mario, Star Wars, My Little Pony etc. There are lots of ideas.  On Pinterest too!

Have fun!