50+ Summer Perler Bead Ideas for Kids

Whether you’re a beach or a mountains person, you’re going to love these summer perler bead ideas for kids! Get over 50 fun and easy patterns!

What did you do every year for summer vacation? I mean besides wait with bated breath for it to begin. Did you do anything special?

A lot of families take consistent vacations, whether it be to the lake, beach, city, or mountains. Or grandma’s house.

I was one of five children, so vacations were few and far between, but we went to Disney once. And to the beach a few times!

Our favorite thing to do each summer (besides crafting) was the community pool. We had one in our neighborhood and it was cheap fun. And who doesn’t love a snack bar?

As I got older and started planning (and paying for) my own vacations, the mountains became a regular part of my summer repertoire. At this point, I’ve spent many a summer in the national parks. I enjoy camping and always have.

No matter what you did for the summers, you’re all here for the same thing: summer perler bead ideas. And no matter what you did, I’ve got you covered with patterns!

I’ve got over 50 patterns for summer perler beads below that encompass a variety of activities whether it be hanging by the ocean or hiking in the hills. There are a lot of summer foods below as well.

No matter what your child’s favorite summer symbol is, I’ve got a pattern they’re going to want to make. There are also easier and more advanced patterns to accommodate different skill levels.

Perler beads are recommended for ages six and up, so this is a very fun craft to try with your elementary age kids. All children seem to love perler beads (also known as hama beads, fuse beads, or melty beads). But don’t be shy – adults love them too!

Tips for Using Perler Beads

Before we get into the summer perler bead ideas, I want to review a few basics of using fuse beads to make sure you get the best results. If you don’t want the tips, scroll down to the bottom to get the patterns and tutorial.

Remember that the overall goal is to melt the beads together on both sides while still leaving the holes open. Here’s how you achieve success (with a rainbow as an example).

Use Ironing or Parchment Paper

Place ironing paper or parchment paper over the beads on the pegboard. Be gentle so you don’t disturb the beads underneath.

Heat your iron to the medium setting (no steam). In a circular motion, begin to iron the project. Don’t press down too hard with the iron. When ironed properly, the beads will still have an open center. Check and make sure your edges are melted. Let the design cool on the pegboard.

Note: BE CAREFUL about lifting up the paper while you’re ironing! If you want to check, carefully peel back paper around the edge of your design and see if all the beads are melted.

If you lift the paper up quickly and there are a lot of unmelted beads, they will easily fall off or go flying and you may be forced to start over. Sometimes the edges need more time so when you check, just check the edges and peel paper back slowly.

Peeling back the paper to check if the beads are melted

Another Note: some beads melt faster than others (clear melts faster than white, for example). So some holes might be larger than others. It’s okay! That’s part of the look of the project.

Iron the Other Side

Remove the bead design from the pegboard. Flip it over to the non-melted side and repeat the fusing process.

Ironing the other side of a fuse bead design

Remove the Paper

Let cool completely and remove the paper again (which is reusable). Some people pull the paper off after they iron the first side, but I just wait until the end and peel off both pieces. It’s up to you!

Peeling the ironing paper off the finished project

Now that you’ve had a refresher on how to melt the beads, you can get the patterns! Keep on reading.

Summer Perler Beads

Make sure to check out these notes:

A few of these patterns are larger than a 29 x 29 pegboard, so you’ll either need a extra large pegboard (49 x 69 tall) or to put multiple square peg boards together to form a larger “canvas.”
In addition to square pegboards, you’ll see round and hexagon pegboards. These are fun to have in your arsenal if you plan to do a lot of perler-ing.
You’ll see a couple of the pattern backgrounds below aren’t white – that’s simply to give contrast so you can see where all the white beads should go. You don’t need to add the background (but you can if you want to).
Don’t stick to my colors necessarily. Customize with your favorite color beads.
I typically start with easier, smaller patterns in my list and then move on to the more difficult ones. You’ll see several different versions of animals, fruit, etc. with larger patterns; just keep scrolling!

Trio of Mermaids

You might see these ladies hanging out on the rocks by the beach, waiting for the ships to come in!

Bomb Pop and Ice Cream Cone

You can use a small board for the bomb pop on the left and a small hexagon board for the ice cream cone on the right.

Cactus, Tropical Fish, Small Flamingo, and Pail with Shovel

Palm Tree, Sailboat, and Sunglasses

Frozen Popsicles

Each little popsicle uses 10 beads for the stick and 46 beads for the colorful portion of the pattern.

Scoops of Ice Cream on a Cone

This pattern uses 40 sherbet, 47 pastel green, 51 pink, 32 tan, and 43 gingerbread beads.

Smiling Sunshine and Beach Umbrella

The sun is done a large round pegboard, and the umbrella can be made on a small or large round.

Beach Sandcastle

This pattern uses 3 pastel blue, 3 white, 64 tan, 3 caribbean sea, 3 hot coral, 12 light brown, and 20 robin’s egg beads.

Colorful Tropical Fish and an Octopus

These pretty tropical fish can be made using any shades of beads you like!

Rainbow Sunglasses

Time to get your rainbow on! You can also use one solid color. The gray are clear beads.

Sand on the Beach

Doesn’t this scene look lovely? A nice day with the sun out, and a shovel with a pail in the sand. It’s totally summer!

3D Beach Chair

This pattern uses 54 sand, 57 white, and 74 turquoise beads. Once you’ve melted the beads, assemble the two pieces together to form a chair.

Collection of Shells

There are three different types of shells below, and you can make them in the colors of your choice.

Pink Flamingo

This pattern uses 124 neon pink, 3 black, 7 yellow, 15 fruit punch, and 40 cheddar beads.

Cute Summer Flip Flops

These patterns use 138 cobalt, 21 yellow, 104 white, 64 plum, 51 magenta, 61 fuschia, and 47 black beads.

Cool Pineapple with Shades

This pattern uses 133 white, 128 black, 55 kiwi lime, 60 shamrock, 60 butterscotch, 54 yellow, and 36 sky perler beads.

Tropical Fish One

This cute marine life uses 53 hot coral, 116 fern, 77 cream, 1 dark blue, and 6 fruit punch beads.

Tropical Fish Two

This pattern uses 207 apricot, 58 hot coral, and 1 black bead.

Smiling Crab

This pattern uses 335 cheddar, 40 clear, 15 black, and 8 hot coral beads.

Jaws Below the Water

This pattern uses 147 light gray, 39 flesh, 17 cobalt, 380 pastel blue, 69 robin’s egg, 74 gray, 71 white, and 2 black beads.

Colorful Seahorse

This pattern uses 82 sky, 87 turquoise, 4 light gray, 11 white, 5 black, 56 apricot, 24 tomato, 26 peach, and 9 fuschia beads.

Blue Shark

This pattern uses 138 clear blue, 3 black, and 17 white beads.

Pirate and First Mate

These patterns use 44 cranberry, 44 white, 60 turquoise, 60 red, 26 sky, 14 teal, 12 gray, 37 black, 35 dark gray, 29 light gray, 81 flesh, 9 cocoa, 13 brown, 6 blush, 4 purple, and 6 grape beads.

Summer Fruit

Includes a few apples, an orange, grapes, a lemon, and a pineapple.

Tropical Flower

This pattern uses 127 white, 139 magenta, 24 blush, 74 raspberry, 78 pink, 12 red, 8 pastel green, and 8 kiwi green beads.

Kiwi, Cherry, Lemon, and Watermelon

Here’s some additional fruit – this time on round boards!

Watermelon and Lemon Drink Covers

We did perler bead drink covers a few summers ago! These are watermelon and lemon themed (there is a circle in the middle for the straw and they cover the cup).

Small Watermelon Bowl

This is an interesting project! You’ll make the base of the bowl on the left, then five of the rings on the right. Then you’ll glue the rings on top of the base with craft glue (glue one and a time and let dry).

Gingham Coasters

What else reminds you of summer more than gingham? Each coaster uses 100 white beads, 160 of a main color, and 64 beads of a secondary color (I used darker shades of the primary color).