Perler Peter Cottontail
You're bound to get a lot of "ooos" and "aaahs" when you finish this project. It takes about an hour, but it's worth it. When you're finished, you'll have a project that you're proud of and that you want to keep even after Easter is over. This one is definitely not for younger children.
What You'll Need:
- Pink Pencil (or another color will do)
- Perler Beads (white, pink, black, brown, tan)
- Heart and Circle Perler Peg Board
- Perler Iron Sheet
- Iron/Ironing Board
- Hot Glue
- 10 Inch Pink Ribbon
- Cotton Balls
What to Do:
1. Working on a flat surface, create each of the pieces below by placing beads one by one on a perler pegboard. All the pieces are created on a heart shaped peg board, except Piece #1 and Piece #2.
2. Preheat a dry (no steam) household iron to the medium setting and move your peg board to your ironing board. When carrying the bead design to the iron, be careful not to tip or bump the beads from the pegboard.
Cover the beads with the ironing paper. Keeping the iron level, gently iron the beads in a circular motion for about 30 seconds to fuse the beads together evenly.
NOTE: The ironing part should only be done by adults or kids that are old enough to handle an iron safely.
3. Once each piece is cool, peel it off the ironing paper and lift the pieces from the pegboard.
4. Once you have created all the pieces above and they've been fused together, it's time to put the rabbit together. There's a diagram to the right to help you with this.
Before you begin to slide the pieces onto the pencil, fit the ears into the larger hole in Piece #1. Also put the eyes into the two smaller holes in Piece #1.
5. Assemble the rabbit according to the picture. First slide a pencil through the center hole in Piece #1, then #2, etc. until you have all the pieces on the pencil. Slide Piece #1 (the top head piece) all the way down to the metal part of the pencil on the eraser end. Slide Piece #2 up next to Piece #1 and fit it together so the holes match and the dent in the front of the head matches (this is where the teeth will go later). Position the other pieces as you see in the example.
The pieces should be tight on the pencil in order to stay in place. If you have problems, you can always put a dab of hot glue where you need it.
6. Using hot glue, create the rabbit's front teeth by stacking two white perler beads on top of each other to make a tooth. Make two of these side by side and glue together to make two buck teeth. Glue the teeth onto the top head piece (Piece #1). Be sure to glue them to the underside of Piece #1, right where the cleft or dent is in the front. Glue one black perler bead on top of Piece #1 at the top of the cleft to make the nose.
7. Make a cotton ball tail and hot glue it in place. Flatten out a piece of cotton ball and put it over the top of the pencil to finish the head.
8. Tie a pink ribbon around the rabbit's neck to complete the project.
