Thursday 27 March 2014

Hama bead and paper plate Easter decorations

This Easter craft was inspired by the Hama bead aquarium that we made last year, which I was reminded about recently when I wrote about ways to display your finished Hama bead projects. They are simple Easter decorations, combining two of my favourite crafting materials - paper plates and Hama beads.

Easter craft with Hama beads and paper plates

This craft was a fantastic joint effort between the children. Mia helped me to paint the paper plates while Harry was at school, and then Harry made the Hama bead Easter eggs. Some of them he finished a little while back when we bought the pegboard, and he also made a couple of new ones just for this craft.

Paper plate and Hama bead Easter decorations craft for children


The Easter Eggs are made on the Easter Egg Hama bead pegboard. It's a great pegboard, because it is shaped in a way that means you can make eggs of all different sizes. It's also very versatile, with lots of ways that you can place the beads to make different patterns while still keeping the overall shape obvious. I'm planning on making lots in a smaller size that we can use for an Easter Egg hunt around the house and keep from year to year. I've also made some tiny Hama bead Easter Eggs which we used as cake toppers!)

We painted up plenty of paper plates. You need two for each frame, one is used as the background and the rim of a second is used for the front of the frame. With older children you could think more carefully about the background that will be visible in the frame, perhaps a lovely scenic background with hills and sky, or a pattern which matches the Easter Egg which will be displayed. You could also decorate the outside frame with stickers or other collage materials.

When the paint is dry, cut out the centre from half the paper plates to make the outside of the frame. Staple them together with the tip of the rims together, so that a 3D frame is formed. Tie cotton thread securely through the top of the Hama bead egg, then use a needle to push the other end of the thread through to the back of the paper plate frame, underneath the rim so that the egg is hanging down slightly. Leave a long tail on the cotton and use a long strip of sellotape to secure. If you want to hang your decoration, add a loop of yarn or ribbon. Otherwise they can be propped up on a shelf or mantlepiece.

Paper plate and Hama bead Easter decorations craft for children


Hama bead creations are great for hanging because you can so easily tie thread through the holes. Even if the hole is slightly closed after ironing, it's very easy to poke through again with a needle. You do need to make sure that the cotton is tied tightly to the top of the egg and that the cotton is taped firmly to the paper plate, as the finished Hama Easter Egg can be quite heavy.

Paper plate and Hama bead Easter decorations craft for children


Paper plate and Hama bead Easter decorations craft for children

You can find all my Hama bead crafts on my Hama beads page - there's lots to inspire you all year round!

13 comments:

  1. Gaah, I've been resisting Hama Beads because I've always imagined my clumsy little guy just spilling them everywhere and getting frustrated, but as he becomes more co-ordinated, and has started to enjoy threading larger beads and various other crafty things, I don't think I can hold out much longer! These look like a lovely place to start x

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    1. You need to get some! Even my two year old can manage to get the beads on the pegboard, she struggled at first but picked it up really quickly, it's fantastic for her fine motor skills!

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  2. Every time I see your Hama Bead creations I really want to get some! I love the idea of using them as part of a larger decoration. Have pinned to try later x

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    1. Thank you, I love that so many people say they want to try them after seeing my posts!

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  3. We are huge Hama Bead fans, but we hardly ever actually fuse together LMC's creations. I've not come across the egg shaped peg board before, but I'm off to see if I can order one right now. With the school holidays coming up I have plans for lots of easter themed crafts. And as for paper plates - we use so so many of them in craft activities. Something that I'd strangely never thought of using before, but LMC loves them. The fact that you can pick them up for a song in the pound shops makes them perfect.

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    1. I found the egg shaped board in our local craft shop, I thought it was a bit limited when we bought it but there is so much that you can do with it, it's very versatile.

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  4. *whispers* we've never had Hama beads before but DD got a set for her birthday and I know your blog is the first place I'm going to be coming for ideas and inspiration!

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  5. Just lovely, we had the HAMA beads out today actually, I'm inspired to do something Easter-y now!

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  6. Very handy as I'm sure we'll be Hama beading this Easter

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I love reading your comments!