Take a trip back to the prehistoric era with this collection of dinosaur perler beads! Get over 40 patterns for your favorite dinos including t rex, triceratops, brontosaurus, and more.
The poor dinosaurs. They never had a chance! Not enough food, too many volcanoes, and changing temperatures. Oh, and then other dinosaurs coming after them all the time!
It was a rough life.
We learned a lot more about it with the movie Jurassic Park, released when I was in high school and still a classic to this day. I’m sure you know there were a ton of other movies released after that, ’cause for some reason, we all just love dinosaurs!
I grew up with four brothers, and it became a household love. We never saw a natural history museum we didn’t like! The skeletons of creatures from times long ago are unreal.
We incorporated dinos into our crafts and play as well. And since we’ve been trying a ton of perler beads around here lately, we decided to make some dinosaur perler beads!
Yep, I’m here today to meld the two worlds: the thunderous land of the dinosaurs and the small yet fabulous universe of perler beads.
Can you imagine a vicious t-rex, a majestic brontosaurus, or a mighty triceratops coming to life with some plastic beads and an iron? Well, we’re going to make it happen today!
If you’re new to perler beads, they are recommended for ages six and up, so this is a very fun craft to try with your elementary age kids. All children seem to love perler beads (also known as hama beads, fuse beads, or melty beads). But don’t be shy – adults love them too!
I’ve got over 40 patterns for you below, ranging from very easy to more difficult. And “difficult” is all relative in perler-ing. Nothing is really that hard 🙂
Tips for Using Perler Beads
Before we get into the dinosaur hama beads, I want to review a few basics of using fuse beads to make sure you get the best results. If you don’t want the tips, scroll down to the bottom to get the patterns and tutorial.
Remember that the overall goal is to melt the beads together on both sides while still leaving the holes open. Here’s how you will achieve success (with a rainbow as an example).
Use Ironing or Parchment Paper
Place ironing paper or parchment paper over the beads on the pegboard. Be gentle so you don’t disturb the beads underneath.
Heat your iron to the medium setting (no steam). In a circular motion, begin to iron the project. Don’t press down too hard with the iron. When ironed properly, the beads will still have an open center.
I keep the iron moving and use small, circular strokes.
Check and make sure your edges are melted. Let the design cool on the pegboard.
Note: BE CAREFUL about lifting up the paper while you’re ironing! If you want to check, carefully peel back paper around the edge of your design and see if all the beads are melted.
If you lift the paper up quickly and there are a lot of unmelted beads, they will easily fall off or go flying and you may be forced to start over. Sometimes the edges need more time so when you check, just check the edges and peel paper back slowly.
Another Note: some beads melt faster than others (clear melts faster than white, for example). So some holes might be larger than others. It’s okay! That’s part of the look of the project.
Iron the Other Side
Remove the bead design from the pegboard. Flip it over to the non-melted side and repeat the fusing process.
Remove the Paper
Let cool completely and remove the paper again (which is reusable). Some people pull the paper off after they iron the first side, but I just wait until the end and peel off both pieces. It’s up to you!
Now that you’ve had a refresher on how to melt the beads, you can get the patterns! Keep on reading.
Dinosaur Hama Beads
Make sure to check out these notes:
- A few of these patterns are larger than a 29 x 29 pegboard, so you’ll either need a extra large pegboard (49 x 69 tall) or to put multiple square peg boards together to form a larger “canvas.”
- Two of these patterns also use either round pegboards or hexagon pegboards, which you’ll definitely want in your arsenal just generally speaking.
- You’ll see a couple of the pattern backgrounds below aren’t white – that’s simply to give contrast so you can see where all the white beads should go. You don’t need to add the background (but you can if you want to).
I’ll start with some mini patterns, go into more general patterns then into alphabetical order! Enjoy.
Mini Dinos
Make a t-rex, parasaurolophus, brontosaurus, palm tree, stegosaurus, and triceratops.
Medium Dinos
Use small boards to make a brontosaurus, triceratops, ankylosaurus, and stegosaurus.
Small T Rex
This pattern uses 22 robin’s egg, 49 light blue, 34 dark blue, and 5 white beads.
Mini Dino and Volcano
This pattern uses 27 tomato, 8 orange, 2 yellow, 52 pastel blue, 89 gray, 1 black, 2 cobalt, 8 white, and 12 dark gray beads.
Three Dimensional Dino
This pattern uses 103 light blue, 1 black, 20 pastel green, and 8 robin’s egg beads. Once you’re done, insert the legs into the body portion to make your dinosaur stand.
Exploding Volcano
This pattern uses 56 light gray, 332 robin’s egg, 15 dark gray, 13 yellow, 13 black, 20 cheddar, 19 spice, 8 cherry, 68 light brown, 51 brown, 33 sour apple, 68 bright green, and 29 shamrock beads.
Blue Dinosaur in Grass
This pattern uses 11 cheddar, 129 lagoon, 1 cobalt, 14 white, 34 teal, and 27 shamrock beads.
Jurassic Park Logo
This pattern uses 88 red, 222 black, and 267 yellow beads.
Jurassic Park T Rex
This pattern uses 321 black, 93 dark green, 152 kiwi lime, and 35 white beads.
Mini Brontos
Why do these little brontosaurus make me squeal? They seem happy somehow. Customize with your favorite colors.
Orange Brontosaurus
This pattern uses 297 orange, 3 white, 1 black, 2 blush, 46 spice, and 37 toasted marshmallow beads.
Medium Brontosaurus
This pattern uses 271 blueberry creme, 1 black, 2 light gray, 128 periwinkle, and 53 gray beads.
Large Bronto
This pattern uses 230 shamrock, 318 kiwi green, 1 black, and 63 pastel green beads.
Medium Parasaurolophus
This pattern uses 145 black, 180 red, 8 white, 27 orange, and 4 cherry beads.
Large Parasaurolophus
This pattern uses 156 light green, 170 parrot green, and 1 black bead.
Medium Pterodactyl
This pattern uses 165 black, 174 light blue, 11 white, 6 light gray, and 2 cheddar beads.
Large Pterodactyl
This pattern uses 75 salmon, 92 blush, 1 black, 151 peach, and 1 clear bead (keeps the leg attached).
Tyrannosaurus Rex with Scales
Some theorize the t-rex had scales. If you’re one of those people, you’ll love this pattern! It uses 140 parrot green, 106 mint, 38 toasted marshmallow, 1 black, 3 blush, and 11 light green beads.
Blue Tyrannosaurus
This pattern uses 209 light blue, 2 black, 2 yellow, 3 white, 7 red, and 104 robin’s egg beads.
Green Tyrannosaurus Rex
This pattern uses 148 dark green, 97 bright green, 18 light brown, 1 black, 2 blush, 14 kiwi green, and 6 light gray beads.
Large Tyrannosaurus Rex
This pattern uses 287 forest, 6 white, 3 gray, 26 sage, 19 evergreen, and 44 kiwi green beads.
Green and Blue Triceratops
This pattern uses 71 turquoise, 187 prickly pear, 8 white, 1 black, and 1 blush bead.
Smiling Triceratops
This pattern uses 16 toasted marshmallow, 245 stone, 42 brown, 3 white, 1 dark blue, and 3 cranapple beads.
Big Blue Triceratops
This pattern uses 212 black, 65 robin’s egg, 360 light blue, and 18 cobalt beads.
Surprised Triceratops
This pattern uses 149 black, 149 shamrock, 27 light gray, 216 kiwi lime, 14 white, and 6 pink beads.
Pink Stegosaurus
This pattern uses 53 raspberry, 198 peach, and 2 black beads.
Surprised Stegosaurus
This pattern uses 143 black, 191 parrot green, 164 light green, 8 white, and 4 light gray beads.
Smiling Stegosaurus
This pattern uses 185 black, 355 pastel green, 37 orange, 8 bright green, 12 pastel yellow, and 11 white beads.
Purple Stegosaurus and Baby Triceratops
These patterns are fun because they use hexagon and round boards!
Running Velociraptor
This pattern uses 348 robin’s egg, 140 blush, 1 black, 40 hot coral, 42 sour apple, 69 pastel green, 62 kiwi lime, and 139 shamrock beads.
Baby Dino Coming Out of an Egg
This pattern uses 237 black, 49 bright green, kiwi lime, 5 robin’s egg, 14 honey, 243 cobalt, and 302 toasted marshmallow beads.
Brontosaurus Skeleton
Uses 265 black and 174 white beads.
Tyrannosaurus Skeleton
Uses 218 black and 167 white beads.
Triceratops Skeleton
Uses 264 black and 208 white beads.
Tyrannosaurus Rex Skull
This pattern uses 554 white and 104 black beads.
Did you enjoy these dinosaur perler beads? Let me know in the comments! I’d love for you to also check out the following posts:
4th of July • Among Us • Animal • Baby Yoda • Batman • Birds • Bluey • Bob Ross • Butterflies • Care Bears • Cat • Christmas • Christmas Trees • Coasters • Dog • Dragon • Easter • Emoji • Fairy & Gnome • Flowers • FNAF • Frog • Halloween • Harry Potter • Hearts • Hello Kitty • Kuromi • Letters • Mickey Mouse • Minecraft • Minions • Mother’s Day • Mushrooms • Panda • Penguin • Pokemon • Pumpkins • Rainbow • St. Patrick’s Day • Sanrio • Santa • Skulls • Sonic • Spiders • Spider Man • Stars • Star Wars • Star Wars Hello Kitty • Stitch • Summer • Super Mario • Superhero • Thanksgiving • Unicorn • Valentine’s Day