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:
Pinkoddy says
June 27, 2012 at 5:46 amThey are fab. We did the letter A this week – wish I’d thought of ailiens 🙂
Red Ted Art says
June 27, 2012 at 6:44 amAh Aliens are GREAT. We do rather like them! Be sure to check out our handprint crafts if you are looking for other letter inspiration! 🙂
Amy Rhodes says
June 27, 2012 at 8:35 amWe have just brought some Maxi Hama beads they are MASSIVE! I really like the way that they are also supplied with a template as well this makes it really good for colour matching as the template fits underneath the seethrough peg board. I used to love playing with these when I was younger and am relly enjoying being able to share the activity now with my daughter.
Red Ted Art says
June 27, 2012 at 9:05 amOh yes, we have had some of the Maxi Beads, they are great! And Agree, the little templates are fabulous too.
Judy says
June 27, 2012 at 1:22 pmMy 5 year old just informed me when seeing your post “I think I want to do that someday!” These sound like a lot of fun and I’m sure both of my boys would love working with these beads.
Red Ted Art says
June 27, 2012 at 4:42 pmHooray! Glad your 5yrs old would like to have a go!
tina says
June 27, 2012 at 5:42 pmthese remind me of the graffiti artist, invader. he goes around the streets and posts these little space invaders around. but i love that you did this with the hama beads. we used to use them for vbs. i might just get some to craft with on my own after seeing this. thanks for sharing!
tina
Red Ted Art says
June 27, 2012 at 5:50 pmAwe thanks – love being compared to a real artists ;-)))) (even if it wasn’t quite meant that way!)
Emma @MummyMummyMum says
June 27, 2012 at 6:58 pmoooh, i love these Maggy. I must get some Hama beads, Z would think they were fab. x
Red Ted Art says
June 27, 2012 at 8:50 pmHooray! Great for fine motor skills too! Perfect for boys! 🙂
Rainbow Prams says
June 28, 2012 at 9:40 amOnce again you’ve aided my thoughts! I’m in the process of having a major clearout and cam across hundreds of these beads! x
Rebecca from Here come the girls says
June 28, 2012 at 1:17 pmOh I knew there was something else I wanted to buy Molly for her birthday, hama beads! Great for rainy days.
Red Ted Art says
June 28, 2012 at 4:09 pmYes they are FABULOUS for rainy days!!
Louise Edwards says
June 28, 2012 at 9:38 pmsuch a cool idea! xxx
Bella says
June 30, 2012 at 2:36 pmLove your space invaders! You left a comment on my blog, which ended up in my spam. I thought I rescued it before I erased everything but I didn’t. Ooops! At least I read it before that happened, so thanks for dropping by. I think it’s hilarious that we both did space invader projects this week. Must be something in the water!
Trisha @ Inspiration Laboratories says
July 2, 2012 at 4:15 amI love how you created your coasters by surrounding your already melted space invaders with new beads – a super way to keep the pattern. Thanks for sharing at The Sunday Showcase.
Dawn @ PricklyMom says
June 9, 2013 at 3:02 pmThis is a PERFECT gift idea for my husband! I think I might need to go out and get some supplies ASAP. My boys will totally be into these beads now, plus, they LOVE “olden days” video game characters.
Selena says
October 12, 2016 at 8:24 pmWhat an awesome collection of ideas! Thank you so much, Maggy
-Selena