Kids Crafts: Space Invader Hama Beads

Welcome back to Kids Get Crafty! Hooray! With a “Space Get Crafty” only around the corner, we fancied some more “space related” themes… so how about the iconic Space Invaders? Needless to say, they mean nothing to Red Ted, but he thought they look like cool little aliens and they are perfect for “Hama Beads”. A whil eback we had a go at Maxi Hama Beads and the kids loved them. I decided we could move on to the “Midi” Hama Beads  – basically your standard Hama bead. Again, the kids were smitten. And Red Ted spent ALL day beading away and making things – mainly “coasters”, with which he later invented a launchpad game!

1) I sketched out our little Space Invader for us to follow and then sat down with Red Ted to see if he would like to make one. He did. I showed him, you follow the pattern and count the number of beads you are placing on your  board. Of course I had to help. But he managed to aliens all by himself. I made some more (whilst he was at nursery). Once you have your decide you use some baking paper and an iron to melt your beads and preserve your pattern.

2) When he came home, we decided to “expand” on the theme.. and make little Space Invader coasters. The easiest way for Red Ted to manage (without constantly mixing up colours), was to use the aliens from Step 1 (already ironed and fixed) and then fill in the space around them. Red Ted made four of these.

3) … and then moved on to his own creations. I love how carefully he arranged his blue and green beads (alternating them and making whole rows of one or the other colour!

What do we think of Hama Beads? Well.. big thumbs up. You can make them “cool” and for boys. I think our space invaders, will look great as coasters and key chains and make fabulous Father’s Day crafts. I reckon they would make a cool pendent too.

And who can knock the fine motor skills Red Ted is developing?!

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Happy Hama Beading! Need more ideas? Then check out our special Perler Bead Crafts “round up” and video: