Recently I made some fuse bead art with my niece and we had so much fun! I wanted to make some more pixel art at home and I found so many cute designs. These mini fuse beads make smaller/cuter pieces and more detailed larger creations. I found this perfect beginner kit and I’ve already made so many fun pieces! Here’s everything you need:
Everything You Need:
- mini fuse bead kit (this is the exact kit I bought, but if you want to buy individual items, here’s everything included:)
- 2.6mm mini fuse beads
- 5.5″ square peg boards
- 5.9″ round peg board
- ironing paper
- pointy hooked tweezers
I also bought some extra beads in colors I thought I’d use most frequently
Then you’ll also need a clothes iron to fuse the beads together.
How to Use Mini Fuse Beads
The first thing you need to do is decide on a cute pixel art pattern. You can freestyle a design you like, use some graph paper to make your own design, or you can search for a pattern online.
Use the hooked tweezers to arrange the mini fuse beads on the peg board. These beads are tiny; much smaller than the normal 5mm size fuse beads. It would be pretty hard to arrange the beads without the tweezers or one of these bead placer pens.
One your piece is complete, it’s time to fuse the beads together. Heat up your iron on low (silk setting; no water/steam). Carefully move your peg board to your ironing location. I use my kitchen countertop.
Place a piece of ironing paper on top of your peg board and use the iron to evenly heat the beads for 10-20 seconds. Move the iron in a smooth, even motion. Don’t press down on the beads; just use the weight of the iron to do the work. You only want to use the iron for long enough to get the beads to melt a bit and stick to the ironing paper.
Transfer the beads (stuck to the ironing paper) off of the peg board and onto the counter. You don’t want to accidentally melt the peg board. At this point you can turn your design over, cover the other side, and iron the back side of the beads if you choose. Ironing both sides of the beads will give a flat/no-holes look to your art. You may need to iron both sides multiple times on a slightly higher heat to melt the beads flat depending on how large your design is.
Once you’re done ironing your pixel art, place a large book or something heavy on top so it can cool without curling up.
Final Thoughts
These pixel art creations are so cool. Having used the normal sized beads and the minis, I prefer the look of the mini fuse beads. They are more challenging to work with, but I think the result is better.
All of the art I’ve made has been pretty small and easy to iron, but larger projects are more tricky; especially when initially ironing the beads. This DIY definitely takes patience.
So far, I have been keeping a few of my favorite creations at my desk, but you could also apply some magnetic tape to make some fridge decor.
I hope you enjoyed this post and that it gave you some inspiration to make some of your own fuse beat art. Share this post on Pinterest! ♡♡♡
