My kids have really gotten into Perler beads this summer. I shared a few of their projects on Instagram lately, and they got me all fired up to play along too.
If you have never worked with perler beads, they are a great creative outlet. “Perler" is their name brand actually, like “Q-Tip” but we actually use a mix of the actual Perler brand along with generic PYSSLA ones from Ikea (because they are much less expensive). But if you are looking for the best variety of colors, nobody beats Perler.
They also make the best assortment of pegboards and accessories. The only other tool I use is a needle nose tweezer. I find that is the best way to manipulate the beads with my giant fingers. For fusing the pieces down you will also need an iron and parchment paper.
For this project I created two long thin rectangles on the largest pegboard I had. Since my board wasn’t very large, I had to make two rectangles and fuse them together, but if you had a really large pegboard (or the kind of boards that snap together) you could probably create this project with one piece. However, since I didn’t, I just made sure I repeated the pattern between both pieces and first fused them separately with the iron.
Then I re-aligned the individual pieces end to end on my pegboard. This will hold them perfectly in place when you melt them together.
You can use the iron to fuse the individual pieces together and you end up with one long rectangle.
WHILE THE PIECE IS STILL WARM (and if it has cooled off, re-heat it with the iron) wrap it around a can or so other round object to put the three dimensional curve in the piece. If you make the piece large enough you could just glue it to the can itself. Don’t try wrapping the cooled sheet around the can or it will crack. 
I used a round plate to create the bottom of my piece (if you are gluing your flat sheet to a can you won’t need a bottom)
I used hot glue to join the ends of the rectangle together and to add the bottom of the cylinder.
Here are my finished projects. The larger example actually holds the soup can inside (if you were using it for a flower vase or something that needed to hold water, you need a container inside since the beads have holes.
I added some faux dollar store succulents and turned the containers into planters.
I love how they came out, so fun to make. It would be a great project to work on with kids. The designs could be whimsical or modern, plain or complicated. The perfect craft to flex your creative muscles! 
