Where to Find the Best Perler Bead Find Supplies

5/24/2017 House of Geekiness 0 Comments

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Since I started working with beads, I've looked all around for the best deals on supplies. I usually want them in a hurry, so I always check local craft stores, like Michael's and Hobby Lobby, Joann. Joann sometimes does 50% off Perler Bead sales!

Perler's website usually has them for a good price, but unless you're spending over $60 or have a killer promo code, you have to pay quite a bit for shipping. Below, I've listed the best places online I've seen to buy different types of Perler Bead supplies.

If you see them cheaper somewhere else, be sure to let me know so I can share it!

**Please note that vendor prices change and there are sometimes Perler bead supplies on sale that will be the best price. This list is subject to change and is only the best price when I can't find Perler bead discounts/coupon codes. 

You can buy your beads, pegboards, tweezer tools, ironing paper, and patterns by themselves, or in a starter kit (bucket). The buckets are cute, inexpensive starter kits!

WARNING

Beware of Perler Bead scams! Not all vendors are trustworthy. Read more about my investigation and what to watch for here.

Beads

First, you need to know what type of beads to use and why.

When you're first getting started, I strongly recommend getting a bucket starter kit (since they come with a variety of pegboards, beginner patterns, beads, and sometimes tweezers), but if you want to buy beads by themselves, here you go. You can buy jars of mixed colors, sorted trays, or packages of individual colors.

Multi-colored Jars

The 11,000 count Jar is great to start with, you get a variety of beads, but not so much that they'll never get used. We always go through these insanely fast! See list of included colors here. For the buckets, these buckets of Perler beads are cheapest on Amazon (with Amazon Prime, shipping is free. Get a free 30 day trial of Prime here!)
The 22,000 count Jar is my standard go-to order when I have a lot of beads to restock. You wouldn't believe how fast we go through beads around here! The only downside to either of these jars is sorting the beads yourself, but I find it relaxing at times. See list of included colors here. For the buckets, these buckets of Perler beads are cheapest on Amazon (with Amazon Prime, shipping is free. Get a free 30 day trial of Prime here!)

Pre-Sorted Trays 

If you don't want to sort through beads (which I'll admit, is a long and tedious process), these trays are for you! They're obviously more expensive than buying the jars, but they save a LOT of time.

Individually Packaged Colors

There are always a few colors I use more than others, (especially black!) so instead of buying another jar or tray, I buy a 1000 bead package of just that color. They're more expensive to buy individually like this, but worth it! There are also some colors that aren't available in trays or jars, like some pastels and striped beads. There are literally hundreds of different packages available. If I'm in a hurry, I'll order them from Amazon, but if I have the time to wait, they're usually less expensive on the Perler.com (especially if you're buying in bulk!)

Bead Storage

Pegboards

As I said before, perler pegboards come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, for different purposes. I most often use the clear, square boards, or a large circle. You can see a larger variety of perler pegboards here. The smaller square pegboards (pictured above) interlock, so if you're taking on a HUGE building project, these are the ones you'll want.

The Superpegboard is my absolute favorite! Not only is this large pegboard perfect for designs that are just a little too big for the smaller square pegboards, for some reason, when it's bumped (which happens a lot at my house), the perler beads don't shift and scatter as much! The only downside is that it doesn't connect to other boards, so you have a size limit to your design (not good for massive perler bead designs).

Tweezer Tool

Ironing Paper

I usually just buy parchment paper, it's cheapest and works great, but isn't as durable as perler ironing paper. So try both, see what you like best. There are different styles of parchment paper as well. It's comes in rolls, square, rectangles, again, depends on your preference. I just buy the Kirkland Signature brand rolled and cut it to whatever size/shape I need, but last time, my Costco was out and I needed it that day (which meant I couldn't order it on Amazon), so I tried the Reynolds Cookie Baking Sheets Non-Stick Parchment Paper, which worked really well and comes pre-cut.