Perler Bead Flower Photo Frames
Learn how to make darling mini flower photo frames out of perler beads. These are the perfect size for Instax or Sprocket photos.
Hi! I’ve got a cute, quick and easy craft idea to share with you today. We’re going to be making magnetic photo frames out of perler beads. These little frames have a floral pattern that is just absolutely darling. They’d be perfect to make to hang on the fridge to display your treasured Instax or Sprocket photos or they’d also work really well in a school locker or on a magnetic whiteboard.
Let’s get making! You will need the following supplies.
Materials Needed
A Note About Perler Beads: It’s cheaper to buy a big bulk mixed bucket of perler beads, but it is such a pain to sort through them to find the colors you want. I recommend buying individual colors and keeping each color in it’s own container or baggie. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and the price there was better than online.
A Note About Magnets: The cheap sheet magnets that you cut up and peel of the paper backing just don’t work for this craft. Do they work for ANY craft? Blah. I think they’re junk. I linked to good magnets that are tiny but strong and it’s just so much easier to use them. Splurge… just trust me, mmmkay?
These frames are designed to fit Instax or Sprocket photos, which measure about 2 inches by 3 inches. If you want to make frames for bigger photos, just follow the same pattern but increase the number of flowers on each side. You would need to buy a larger pegboard to be able to make a frame to fit a 4 inch by 6 inch photo. The one I have linked isn’t quite big enough… I tried. lol.
Instructions
Step 1: Place the pegboard in front of you with one straight edge down. Make a six petal flower along the left edge, but leave the very bottom two pegs open. Add a contrasting color to the center of the flower shape. Make a second six petal flower to the right of the first flower. The center petal of the second flower will line up with the bottom petals of the first flower. So the flowers kind of zig zag. If you aligned them properly, there should be two empty pegs in the bottom left corner of the board, like this:
Step 2: Continue making flowers until you have five flowers in a horizontal zig zaggy line. This will be the bottom edge of your frame.
Step 3: To build up the right edge of the frame, place a flower above but slightly out from the right hand corner as shown in the photo below. Continue with seven flowers going vertically up the right hand side.
Step 4: When you are satisfied with your design, it’s time to melt the beads together. You can use a clothing iron or an EasyPress if you have one.
- Cover the design with ironing paper.
- Set your iron to a medium heat or heat press to 320 degrees.
- Carefully heat up your design, making sure to keep the iron flat so that the beads melt evenly across the design. If you’re using an Easypress, don’t apply any pressure. Just rest it on the design.
- Press just until everything sticks together, about 20 seconds. I prefer the look of the beads on the un-ironed side, so I don’t flip my design over. But if you want both sides to have the melted look, flip the design over and melt the other side too.
Once my design is melted nicely, I like to place a heavy book on top of it while it cools just to help it stay flat.
Look how cute these frames are!
Step 5: The last step is to hot glue a magnet to the back of each frame. Then you can hang it on your fridge or locker or whiteboard and display your favorite Instax or Sprocket mini photos in style.
I’ve created a pattern you can print out to help you line up the flowers correctly. The first time I ever tried this, I got one row off somewhere and when I got back around to the last few flowers in the rectangle, they didn’t line up! You can definitely just refer to the photos above, but if you want the extra help, click the pink button and print out the pattern to refer to while you work. This would also be helpful for kids so they don’t have to steal your phone while they make this craft.
Perler Bead Flower Photo Frames Video
So there you have it. A fun little craft you or your older kids or teens can make in an afternoon. I love that you can completely customize these with the color combinations you choose. And the wavy daisy flower pattern is just so darn cute. Hope you have fun with it. And don’t forget to pin this idea for later:
Happy crafting!
