When Lily was about 3 we were visiting her Grandparents and her cousin Heather showed her this craft called Hama Beads. At that time Lily was way to young for it and would get extremely frustrated trying to get all those little beads on the board without constantly knocking them all off. She persevered and it became an all time favourite pastime of hers. So much so that for a couple of years I was bringing the annoying little beads back from the U.K. with me since I couldn't find them here.
Everytime Lily had a friend over to play they would "do" Hama beads or as they are known over here, Perler Beads. Hours and hours of designing the perfect project only to have it accidently get bumped or dropped as they transferred it to the counter or to me to iron. Frankly I hate the freaking things cos I hate seeing the kids work so hard on something only to have the darn thing topple before they are totally finished. (Not to mention that they always end up all over the place.) But none of that matters to them.
The weather has been rotten the last couple of days so indoor crafts have been the way to go and the Hama beads made an appearance. Out of nowhere Rosie decided she would start doing them. Now she is hooked too. Of course she is clumsy and oh so slow, bless her and the whole job takes her forever but she loves them. She has knocked over more than her fair share, I knocked one the other day and sent a whole row sailing and she was devastated until I redid it for her in record time. I imagine I have at least another 5 years of these things in my house so how many does that mean will get sucked up the Dyson?
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| Rosie's pattern |
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| concentrating |
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| see how tiny they are and how many there are? |
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| after you have put all the beads on the board you iron them and the heat melts or molds them together |
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| another of Rosie's creations. This was her first. |
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Lily doesn't use a defined shape anymore she does them free hand. They must have close to one hundred of them and Lily still has the first one she ever made and the one that Heather made for her when she just couldn't get it right.
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They are a lot of fun and you can get them at Ikea and also at Micheals. Just google Perler beads if you are interested or click
here
5 comments:
Please send us some rain.....we are shriveling up!!!!
I remember seeing those beads, maybe in walmart! Love how she did Lily - beautiful. We have had nothing but rain too, it's nice to have - but every day just sucks. We're having friends over tomorrow for a cook out and swimming, before they head to China on Thursday and i'm hoping it doesn't rain.
Oh that looks like something Kerri would love to do! Thanks for sharing. :o)
Remembering way back when they were all so little - there were hama beads and many camps under the table, loved it all.
Erin loves to work with her Perler beads! She's made so many that she's given them as gifts. When Jolene & I take the girls away, we take a few buckets with us & an iron. BTW, the iron? Not for clothing.
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