Perler beads, hama beads, melty beads: These wee little tubes of plastic go by many names. Traditionally thought of as a children’s toy, one quick look at Pinterest will clue you in that plenty of crafty adults have caught melty bead fever.
Image: Lawrie Cate via Flickr Creative Commons
The premise is this: Tiny tubes of plastic lie on a studded tray to make a design. Once your image is complete, you cover said design with a special sheet of paper and iron until everything fuses together. Nifty, huh?
You can buy whole kits of this stuff and make them as elaborate and intricate as you want.
This holiday season, I thought, "Why let my kids have all the Perler bead fun? I want to play, too."
That is when I came up with yet another variation of the “Ugly Christmas Sweater” concept. I set out to make ugly hama bead sweaters.
After a long evening of squinting, I reached my goal. I took things a step farther and decided to make my sweaters a set of coasters for holiday cocktails!
How to Make Ugly Christmas Sweater Hama Bead Coasters
Decide how large you want your coasters. I used a standard wine glass as my guide.
Next I made the outline of a sweater in white beads. I kept the white outline uniform throughout my four coasters.
Time to play fashion designer with your melty beads! Think dreidels, reindeer and snowmen. Use designs that are easy to create in small, fairly crude form.
Once you have your design laid out CAREFULLY, head over to the iron. Nothing is more frustrating than bumping a complete coaster and knocking the beads everywhere.
Trust me, I speak from experience.
Follow the package instructions for ironing and covering your design with the paper included in your kit to protect your iron.
Let your coaster cool and remove it from the grid. Another word to the wise: Don’t over-iron. Your design can start to get wonky.
I decided mine just looked like an even worse holiday sweater. You also don’t want to under-iron and not completely fuse your beads. Doing so makes the "coaster" part of this project null and void.
Now, the next ugly holiday sweater party you get invited to, use these as a hostess gift! If you're doing the hosting, these make a great activity for the guests. Oh, and nothing says they're coasters! They make great ornaments, too! Go crazy.
