Tag Archives: perler beads

3.5″ Floppy Disk Coasters Protect Tables with Pixels

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You know what makes a good drink coaster? A good old 3.5″ floppy disk. But real floppies have moving parts and irregularities that can make them less than ideal surfaces for balancing some glasses. Never mind that they just don’t look as cool as these colorful pixel art floppy coasters.

Artist Tsvetelina Mihaylova aka PXLprincess makes these 3.5″ floppy coasters entirely from fused perler beads, and they look great. They come in way more colors than I remember in my old library of floppies. I seem to remember a sea of black and blue plastic neatly loaded into these tubs that held maybe 50 disks each, with lots of chicken scratch scrawled onto the labels. And remember having to install software that came on like 20 disks? I don’t miss that.

You can grab some pixel art floppy coasters over on Etsy for about $4 a piece. Just don’t try and stick these floppies into your old disk drive. I can’t imagine that would work out well. And remember, Don’t Copy That Floppy!

Build Your Own Level with this Magnetic Super Mario Bros. 2 Pixel Art Board

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Every geeky room needs some pixel art on the wall. But rather than just have some static image, why not go with something a bit more interactive? The Pixel Art Shop has got you covered.

This Super Mario Bros. 2 wall art has a wide open spot in the middle of its canvas, allowing you to select the character you want to play with, just like the original game. Each character is handmade using fused perler beads and has a magnet on the back.

The set includes all four playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad – and a backdrop populated with other objects from the classic 1988 NES game. It measures in at 16″ x 20″ so it should fill out that big blank spot on your wall nicely. It’s $120 over on The Pixel Art Shop’s Etsy page, where you can find all sorts of other cool perler bead creations.

Super Mario Bros. Christmas Ornament Set: Have a Merry Mario and a Happy Luigi

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It’s never too early for Christmas? Right? Okay, maybe it is, but we are talking Mario here. Etsy seller LighterCases is branching out from their namesake lighter cases apparently and offering a neat set of Super Mario Christmas ornaments.

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You get nine pieces to hang on your tree with glee: Mario, Luigi, Goomba, Ghost, Item Block, Mushroom, Fire Flower and a 1up Mushroom ornament, and a Star tree topper.

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They are all made from Perler Beads and look nice and retro. The set is $40(USD). That 1up ornament may even get you an extra Christmas if you can catch it.

Legend of Zelda Link and Zelda Minecraft Figures

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Now your favorite Nintendo characters are strangers in a strange land and look all blocky and only a tad pixelated. Etsy artist BeadxBead is offering these Legend of Zelda Minecraft figures for those who love both games and can’t decide which is their favorite.

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Now you can have both games in one with these The Legend of Zelda Minecraft figurines. You get both Link and Zelda from Twilight Princess, handmade with fused plastic beads. The Master Sword that Link is carrying is attached by a magnet, so you can display him with or without it.

This set is just about $24(USD). Go ahead and hit the buy button, because it’s dangerous to go alone.

[via That's Why I'm Broke]

Bit Bead iPhone 5/5S Case: Personalize it Bead by Bead

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We’ve seen a couple of iPhone cases that can be personalized by cross-stitching. Ross McBride’s Bit Bead case for the iPhone 5 and 5S has a similar design but it uses fuse beads, making it easier to customize.

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The Bit Bead kit comes with the case, a pegboard, three frames and 1,000 heat-fusible beads in 16 colors. Ross set up a web app that contains a virtual Bit Bead to make it easier to try out your design. One of the downsides of the case is that its 13mm thick, nearly double the thickness of the iPhone 5S. The other downside is of course that it will probably be incompatible with the iPhone 6.

Melt a bead browser and pledge at least £20 (~$34 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Bit Bead kit as a reward. As for me, I’ve relied on accidentally dropping and scratching my phone for years to give it a personal touch.

[via The Gadget Flow]

Donkey Kong Christmas Tree Decorations: Happy Nintendolidays

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Now that it’s after Thanksgiving, it’s officially okay to talk about Christmas, and put up the tree. But even if you picked out a festive blue spruce, do you know how you’re going to decorate it? Well, you could put some ordinary department store ornaments on it, or you could go full on geek.

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This set of Donkey Kong themed ornaments ($60) comes from Etsy artist LighterCases, and it includes everything you need to recreate the classic Nintendo arcade game on your Christmas tree. The set of 12 pieces includes girders, ladders, barrels, Jumpman and his Princess. To top things off, it comes with a Donkey Kong tree topper. Each piece is made from melted Perler beads to form the pixels.

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If you’re not into Donkey Kong, their shop has got lots of other fun holiday ornament sets, including Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Zelda, Tetris, Mega Man, and even some South Park themed sets among others.

8-Bit Bow Tie Makes You a Dapper Player

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You’ve been wearing your 8-Bit Tie for so long that your geeky appeal has worn off. Time to shake things up a bit. Get an 8-Bit bow tie. It seems to be made of Perler beads, so you don’t have to worry about fixing it from time to time.

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Etsy seller Clever Trevor sells 8-Bit bow ties for $8.50 (USD) each. Each bow tie is handmade and you can also ask for specific colors or a glow in the dark variant. We need a fabric version of this.