Fusible Beads and a Kids’ Crafternoon Give Away.

Have you ever tried crafting with fusible beads?

I’d seen packets of Hama beads in our local toy shop, but I never really knew what they were until Hardie Grant sent my kids and I copies of the two new Kid’s Crafternoon Books. The Beading book features little birdy earrings made from fusible beads on the front cover and that inspired us to pick up some beads and bead boards and have a play.

The fusible beads are really tiny, and quite tricky to keep under control, so we started out just playing with patterns and colours to make basic shapes while we got the hang on them.

Once you’ve arranged your beads in the pattern you want on the board, you place baking paper over them and ‘fuse’ them with a hot iron for a few seconds. It took me a while to figure out the optimum amount of iron time and how much melt you needed to get the items to really stay stuck together, but even the ones I over melted still looked pretty cool

We had a go at one of the birds in the Beading book. The girls followed the pattern easily and were thrilled with the results. The bird inspired them to come up with their own more complex patterns and we ended up making the first letter in each of their names, a beaver (?!) and lots of other letters, shapes and patterns.

The girls LOVED this activity. It’s spot on for a 7-8 year old who like to sit and create, playing with patterns and colours. They sat and created for nearly two hours!

Morgan found it just a little tricky to get the beads to go where he wanted them, and getting them stay there (so did I!). He gave up after a while, preferring to offer colour selection advice to the rest of us.

I really enjoyed this activity too and my mind is whirring with cool things you could do with these beads! The Kids’ Crafternoon Beading book offers inspiration for using the fusible beads to make earrings, magnets and even bunting! I think they’d make cool bracelets if you made small circles and strung them together and we are thinking of turning our letters in to broaches. You can also string these as regular beads, so they are quite versatile, and lots of fun.

I blogged about the first two Kids’ Crafternoon books, Papercraft and Sewing, back in July. Now there are two new books to add to the series – Kids’ Crafternoon Beading and Kids’ Crafternoon Felting. Edited by Kathreen from Whipup, the two new books are just as lovely as the first two. Full of interesting projects from a variety of contributors, and perfect for kids aged 6 and up, and adults too of course!

All four books are available from Booktopia.

Win one of two Kids’ Crafternoon Books!

This competition is now closed, winners have been notified

If you’d like to win a copy of either the beading or felting book all you need to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me what you’d make from fusible beads. Please be sure to also let me know which book you would like to win. The most creative, funny, and interesting answers will win.

Terms & Conditions
You must be an Australian resident to enter and provide a valid email address.
Entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close Thursday December 1st 2011
One winner for each book with be notified via email and announced on this post by December 2nd 2011
Winners must contact me within 7 days or the prize will be re-drawn.
Winners postal address will be passed on to Hardie Grant Books and the prizes will be sent directly from them.

Follow along with the virtual book tour and find out what these other super talented crafty bloggers have to say about these lovely books –

• Lisa Tilse from The Red Thread – 14-Nov
• Suzie Fry – 15-Nov
• Larissa Holland from mmmCrafts – 16-Nov
• Pascale Mestdagh from Between the Lines – 17-Nov
• Christine Chitnis – 18-Nov
• Holly Keller from Chez Beeper Bebe – 19-Nov
• Monica Solorio-Snow from The Happy Zombie – 20-Nov
• Cate Holst from Go Make Me – 21-Nov
• Shannon Cook from Luvinthemommyhood – 22-Nov
• Jennifer Casa from JCHandmade – 23-Nov
• Steph Morgan from Modern Parents Messy Kids – 25-Nov
• Kara Fleck from Simple Kids – 26-Nov
• Li’l Magoolie – 27-Nov
• Jackie Boucher from Oh Dee Doh – 28-Nov
• Bianca from Sadie and Lance – 29-Nov
• Tricia Hogbin from Little Eco Footprints – 30-Nov
• Lisa Siebert guest posting at Poppytalk – 1-Dec

{ Disclosure: I was given a copy of each book to review. I was not compensated in any other way for this post. The opinions in this post are purely my own. }