House of Geekiness: relaxation

Aimee's picture of her Perler mini bead ornaments

A few weeks ago, I saw that two of my friends from church were watching Doctor Who for the first time but were having trouble getting into Series 1. Those of us who are fans were encouraging them on Facebook to keep watching and suggesting episode orders, etc. I'm sure you've all seen that same conversation a million times. Well, they stuck with it, even through the more ridiculous episodes, and got to the good stuff. They are now official Doctor Who fans.

As a badge of honor, and since it was Christmastime, I made them each some of my Doctor Who Perler Mini beadsprite ornaments: The Ninth Doctor (since he will always be their first Doctor), Rose Tyler, and a Tardis.

My delivery of these didn't quite go as planned. I was late to deliver Aimee's ornaments (yes, I know how shocked you are at my lack of punctuality) and she was Live on Facebook. So, my ornaments made a short appearance in her video!

You might have noticed that she was a bit thrown by the unexpected surprise and combined my name and my husband's name (Laura and Erik), and called me "Erika". Hahaha!

My other Perler bead gift was to a friend who is a HUGE Disney fan that loves Hawaii. Naturally, I decided she needed a Hawaiian Disney themed Perler bead gift (in this case, wall art).

Here's how I made it:

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I started by finding something similar to what I wanted. I did a quick Google search of "Mickey Mouse Hawaiian Perler Bead" and it came up with this pattern. Not quite what I wanted, but close enough to for me to adapt into my own vision. I knew decided to put Mickey Mouse of the surf board, but to add my own rainbow and flowers.

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I started with a basic idea of what Mickey Mouse looks like, then what he might look like in Perler beads.

It was a bit tricky because I had to keep Mickey Mouse small enough to keep the pattern I'd already decided on, but large enough to show some detail. (You'll notice in the original pattern, the guy's head/hair is only 3 beads.)

Then, I altered it to fit my Hawaiian surfing scene, replacing the surfer dude with my Mickey Mouse, which was a bit larger than the original pattern, but I thought I could make it work.

Image Source

Next, was the hibiscus flower, a renown icon for Hawaii. I loved these ones from Madam Fandom, but they were much too big for my little pattern.

As you can see, I added two flowers instead of just one, and moved the rainbow to the left corner and behind the text. I also re-centered and adjusted the word "Hawaii" to fit in front of the rainbow and behind Mickey Mouse, made a few more small adjustments, then, I added a row of dark blue and two rows of dark grey for a perler bead frame for our wall art.

I hope she likes it!

How to get started with Perler Beads, ideas, tips, tutorials, videos, and more here!

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Can I make a confession? I love to color! It's something I've never outgrown, and I don't think I ever will. The fact that adult coloring books have become popular makes me so so happy—not just because it means I'm not the only one, but it means it's easy to find great coloring books! My kids were getting really sick of sharing their coloring books with me and the pages in the kid coloring books were just too simple.

Page from Relaxing Therapy Coloring Book

Now, granted, my style of coloring isn't the typical bohemian style that is popular right now (where you color every single millimeter a different color, so it becomes a beautiful rainbow mosaic.) I prefer blocks of solid color, for the most part, on detailed pictures like these you see here in the pictures I've colored.

Page from Relaxing Therapy Coloring Book

I also don't like to use the standard colored pencils or gel pens. Actually, I really love using gel pens, and I love the variety of colors that are available in colored pencils, but I hate sharpening pencils (that and plastic wrap are bane of my existence!) and gel pens just don't last long enough. With my style of using a lot of one color per coloring page, I was going through a whole gel pen for one picture.

Page from Relaxing Therapy Coloring Book

Then, walking through Costco, it hit me: Sharpies!

Iron Man art colored with Sharpies at Free Comic Book Day

I'd seen comic book artists use Sharpies to color their drawings at Free Comic Book Day (read more about Free Comic Book Day here, it rocks!) So I tried using Sharpies for my adult coloring books and coloring therapy. Love them!!

Page from the Doctor Who Coloring Book

They do have a few drawbacks (no pun intended!), like not as many colors available and having to find ultra-fine tip vs. fine tip, and the metalic colors (which are my favorite to use because it feels like I'm painting!) covering up the picture's lines (which I have to redraw). Actually, in all these coloring pages with gold or silver ink, you might be able to see where I had to redraw the lines in black ink (which is actually kind of fun if I don't completely mess it up—like I did with the cyberman in silver above...)

I'm having so much fun coloring! Not only is it a great way to relax, it helps me listen when I normally would have trouble concentrating (I have ADHD Inattentive).

Here are a few things to help you get started (or have even more fun if you're already addicted, like me). These are the two books I've tried so far. Love them both! Relaxing Therapy Coloring Book (I found mine at Costco but Amazon has it as well) and The Doctor Who Coloring Book. I've included all of the geeky coloring books that are on my wishlist.

Coloring Supplies

Sharpie Fine-Tip Permanent Marker, 24-Pack Assorted Colors (Great for larger blocks of color and consistent/smoother lines)

Metallic Sharpies

Ultra-fine tip Sharpies

SUDEE STILE Color Pencils Set (120 Colors) Colored pencils come in a HUGE variety of colors and allow for more artistry in shading, etc.

Gel Pens 120 Top Quality Gel Ink Pen Set with Compact PVC Case Gel pens make me feel like I'm painting. If you're going for the popular style of lots of different colors per coloring page, this is a fun option!