Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Super Mario Coasters


Continuing with the 80's geek theme that we have going in our living room, I decided that we needed some 8-Bit Super Mario Coasters!




They go along perfectly with our Nintendo Controller Coffee Table. :)

(Left to right: star power, yoshi egg, coin, mole, fire power, green mushroom, ghost, red mushroom, turtle shell, spitting rose, feather flying power, wind up bomb.)

I would take me forever to make patterns for all of these so here is a head on view of them that should make it easy for you to follow. These are made out of perler beads which I am sure most of you played with as kids so I won't do a big tutorial or anything. Even if you aren't familiar with it they come with instructions to help you out. If you want the melted side on top then place the beads exactly as they are shown above. However, if you want the unmelted side on top like I did, you will need to flip it over and do a mirror image. 

If you want a more uniform look or don't want to have to purchase so many different colors, here they are with all gray backgrounds:


These coasters are each 18 pegs wide and tall which makes them about 3 1/2 square inches. You will need the large square pegboard to make this size. To make sure they wouldn't scratch the table, I hot glued some felt onto the back. It seems to work best if you put the hot glue on the felt and then lay the coaster on top. If the hot glue dries too fast and the pieces don't want to attach, you can reactivate the hot glue by laying your coaster on a table with the felt facing up, place a piece of cotton fabric over it and heat with an iron on low heat, moving in circles until they stick together.

You can get perler beads for a good price when you buy them in a large bucket but it can be a pain to sort them and many times you won't have enough of the color that you need. If you are going to do a large Perler project, I recommend getting the 1,000 Piece Packs and buy each color individually. I store them in snack size zip bags and when I am ready to work, I pour each color into it's own cupcake liner.


I also made a little caddy to hold all of my coasters. I made these four panels then put them all together with hot glue:



It holds all twelve on my coasters with room for a few more. :)

Another idea is to make just the power up mushrooms without the colored background. You could use these as coasters as well or attach magnets to the back and stick them on your fridge!


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13 comments:

Mekenzie @ interiorsbykenz.com said...

OH MY HOLY HELL I NEED ALL OF THESE! Sell them, and I will buy them.

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy that you like them. :) There are some for sale in the home decor section of my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PolishTheStars?section_id=10430557 If you would like a colorful background like the ones in the top picture, just send me a message with the color(s) that you would like and I can put together a custom order for you!

Rhissanna said...

Wow. look at the detail. And all in 8 bits! Seriously, this must have taken you forever!)

Unknown said...

These are so amazing!!

Mekenzie @ interiorsbykenz.com said...

Awesome! I'm going to check it out. And, you're rad.

KatBell said...

My friends are always telling me that I'm very creative. I do DIY house stuff, craft, quilt, stained glass etc. I started thinking about starting a blog and since I don't know much about them, started doing some research and joining some blogs. Seriously, I now feel like I'm not that creative. You, as well as all the other lovely women whose blogs I have joined are super creative!!!!! Thanks for what you do and for the inspiration. Someday I hope to have my craft room featured on Craftaholics Anonymous but first I have to get my 28yr old married son and his wife out of it!!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Ack I love these!! Our dog is named Yoshi :) This is the first time I've seen something made with perler beads that I wanted to have in my house.. rock on! Stephanie

Julie E said...

You sell these?!?! YES!!! And ditto on the radness.

Julie E said...

You've been featured! Your post was one of the top viewed link last week. Thanks so much for sharing at Wednesday Whatsits! http://www.whitelightsonwednesday.com/2012/10/wednesday-whatsits-28.html

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I'm sure you are very creative! I felt the same way when I first started blogging. This little crafting community of ours does wonders for creativity. I have learned so much from other bloggers would not have come as far as I have without their support and inspiration. :)

Anonymous said...

That is an awesome dog name! I'm usually not a big fan of perler beads either but they worked perfectly for the 8-bit effect. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I don't think they took too long but I worked on it while watching tv so I didn't pay much attention to the time. Having the colors pre-sorted saves a ton of time!

sbowes1 said...

Hi!

I am stopping by to let you know that I did this project and it turned out great! I ended up making Ninja Turtle coasters. I have you linked as the source for the idea on my blog. Thanks for the wonderful idea!

http://www.domesticated-engineer.com/1/post/2013/07/ninja-turtle-8-bit-coasters.html