Perler Party! (a quasi tutorial)

Anyone remember using perler beads when they were a kid?  I do!  I remember one summer in particular, that my grandmother got me a bunch of them.  I spent all summer making different designs, but then after they were fused it was always "what do we do with them now?"

These days though, perler beads have assumed their own place in nerd crafts.  Now, if you do a google search for "perler beads" and then go to images, you will see all kinds of nerd crafts with perler beads!  Mario mushrooms, Zelda characters. Even the Geek Crafts book has a full scale Buffy the Vampire Slayer (from the show not the movie) portrait all made from perler beads!

J is a big fan of perler art, and he seems to have a knack for it as well.  The first time I went to his apt, he had mario mushrooms made out of perler beads on his door (which have since been stolen!) and space invaders on his cabinets (also made from perlers!).  I knew then that this guy was the guy for me!

Having a crafty boyfriend is so awesome!  They make you cool surprise bows for your hair, like this one:

 Now, when I said this was a quasi tutorial, I meant that by this picture you should be able to copy his design if you wanted a cute hair bow of your own.  If you are so inclined, you might be able to scale it down a bit even, if you wanted it smaller.  Here is what it looks like on the back, where I attached the hair clip.

I love wearing this bow, and have gotten TONS of compliments on it.  I did find though, that it is a little heavy.  When I would put it in my hair, it would weigh that side down, and it looked funny.  So, what I do to wear this bow, is clip it to a thin head band.  Like so:

 I hope you enjoyed my first (quasi) tutorial!  I plan on posting other designs that J has made with perler beads (his robots are amazing!). 

Later
Nik