Erica

so we pulled out our bucket of Perler Beads this weekend to make some fun St. Patrick's Day crafts with the kids. Every time we end up making Perler Bead designs the bucket of beads stays out for a long time and the kids have fun playing with them and creating. I enjoy coming up with designs we can make for different seasons, holidays, or themes, so I really wanted to make some St. Patrick's Day themed designs. These include a 4 leaf clover, a rainbow, the end of the rainbow, a pot of gold, a leprechaun hat, and an Irish Flag.

Using the Cricut Mug Press, sublimation mugs, and Infusible Ink you can make professional quality mugs at home. You can use any mugs that are made for sublimation (they have a coating that allows the ink to bind to the surface of the mug) as long as they are straight sides and between 11-16 oz. Design Space already has lots of images pre-designed and sized to fit the mugs, as well as some customizable designs (like partially made designs I will be sharing some project tutorials soon, but you can find all of the supplies, the Mug Press, mugs, and Infusible Ink at JOANN.com

I had a fun time just sitting and painting the rocks with different designs by myself, but this would be a fun activity for kids too, or for a group activity. My girls had a very fun time painting their rocks and the paint pens were a lot easier and less messy then when we have used paints and paintbrushes to paint rocks. Then when I had all of the stripes or sections of color I added the details like thinner lines and dots. Either way worked, I think the base color works best if you are using a lighter color, or if you are adding smaller details rather than large sections of color.

Round 15: [sc2tog, sc in next 2 st] repeat around (18 sc) Round 17: [sc2tog, sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc) Round 19: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 st] repeat around (30 sc) Round 20: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 st] repeat around (36 sc) Round 21: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 5 st] repeat around (42 sc) Round 29: [sc2tog, sc in next 5 st] repeat around (36 sc) Place safety eyes between rows 26 and 27, about 6 stitches apart, place safety nose 2 rows below the eyes centered in between them Continue stuffing the head as you finish Round 30: [sc2tog, sc in next 4 st] repeat around (30 sc) Round 31: [sc2tog, sc in next 3 st] repeat around (24 sc) Round 32: [sc2tog, sc in next 2 st] repeat around (18 sc) Round 33: [sc2tog, sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc) Finish off, cut yarn, and weave around to close stitches Round 2: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next] repeat around (9 sc) Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2] repeat around (12 sc) Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (15 sc) Round 10: [sc2tog,