Hearts and Trees Perler Bead Contest

I have a large assortment of Perler Bead projects that little children made for me when I worked at a school. Every afternoon when we would come in from snack and recess and it would be project time, at least one child would ask, "Can we do Perler Beads today?" Perler Beads were the most requested project time activity.

Basically, Perler Beads are small colored plastic beads (as seen above) that you place on pegboards (as seen below). Not only are there specific shaped pegboards (flowers, people, animals, heart, etc) but there are also large square and circle shapes so that you can totally design your own project. The pegboards are reusable.

Pegboards

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These are the projects I pulled out of my drawer this morning. I did the LOVE one, but I think all the rest were gifts from little ones.

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Perler Beads come in lots of different colors: primary, pastels, neons, glow-in-the-dark, etc. In the photo above the heart is made of glow in the dark beads.

My little brothers did these projects.

There are a lot of skills developed using Perler Beads. Not only does it develop small motor skills, but it requires patience and gentleness to place each individual bead on the pegboard. I was amazed that some children who could barely sit still the rest of the day could sit for hours working on detailed Perler Bead projects. Depending on the set of Perler Beads you purchase your child might also have the chance to work on color recognition. At the school we would have three shades of pink and the children could distinguish one from another.

Once your child (or even you might be tempted to give it a try) places the beads on the pegboard and finishes his or her design you simply need an iron to heat the beads so that they stick together, using the special ironing paper that is provided in each pack of Perler Beads.

My Mom's post about Perler Beads can be found here.

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Now for a contest. I purchased three small Perler Bead sets at Michael's the other day. For the chance to win one you will just need to make a post with a link to my blog on your blog. You can link to any post or just my main page. Or you can borrow my Spring Kit Pre-Order button (below) and add it to your blog sidebar. Once you have done one of these two things, just leave me a comment with a link to your post or blog and you will be entered into the Hearts and Trees Perler Bead Contest. In the afternoon of Thursday March 27th I will draw three names from all that have entered my contest.

If you decided you would like to use my button, just select all the html in the box below (ctrl a) and copy it (ctrl c) and then paste it into your sidebar. I am not too good with technical stuff, but if you have trouble I might be able to help you out.

<center><a href="http://heartsandtrees.blogspot.com/2008/03/spring-kit-pre-ordering-starts-now.html" title="211 preorder button by AmandaChristina, on Flickr"><img width="211" alt="211 preorder button" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/2332222350_51bba96ebd_o.jpg" height="140" /></a></center>