Halloween Tic Tac Toe with Perler Beads

Learn how to make Halloween tic tac toe using perler beads! Kids will love this easy holiday project that results in a game to play.

Skills Required: None. Even if you’ve never crafted before, this game is easy to make. You’ll be melting beads with an iron and gluing them together. The patterns are at the bottom of the post.

Happy Halloween, my friends! I’m so excited for this time of year, and all the creativity that goes along with it. I love Halloween crafts, and I’ll be the first to admit that I get started early.

But you’re allowed to start early with holiday crafting, right?

This was the year of perler beads, and I did a lot of Halloween perler bead patterns . . . and my niece and I had an amazing time!

We came up with patterns for spiders, skulls, pumpkins, and all sorts of fun holiday characters and themes.

Then we realized we wanted to make another game. We made a perler bead tic tac toe game not so very long ago. It’s still on the table and regularly played by everyone.

Of course with the holiday approaching, it was time to take that same game and add a bit of magic to it. So – we made Halloween tic tac toe! With pumpkin and Frankenstein markers.

And as you know, tic tac toe is very simple. In more ways than one. Not only is it simple to play, but it’s simple to make! Your kids are going to love this Halloween themed game.

Tray of a variety of colors of hama beads

Perler beads 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!

Tips for Using Perler Beads

Before we get into the game creation, 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 get the best results (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. 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.

Peeling back the paper to check if the beads are melted

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.

Ironing the other side of a fuse bead design

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!

Peeling the ironing paper off the finished project

There’s only one additional step you’re going to need to do to make the Halloween tic tac toe, and that’s glue the grid down on top of the base. This is how I did it with the previous game.

layered perler bead pieces for tic tac toe

I used a dab of clear drying craft adhesive (Aleene’s works great) to attach the finished designs to the sticks. They dried completely in about an hour. You could probably hot glue them as well.

I let the glue dry a little bit, then I sat a big pot on top so that the game would dry flat. That’s really all you need to know to get this made!

Now if you’re ready to make the game, here are the patterns! You’ll need to make the base, the grid, and then the pieces.

Tic Tac Toe Base

This fills an entire 29 x 29 square and uses 841 beads in the color of your choice. I used black.

Tic Tac Toe Grid

This pattern uses 400 beads in the color of your choice. I used grape.

Tic Tac Toe Pieces

You’ll need five of each piece. I chose Frankenstein and a pumpkin for my game, but you can make any shape you like!

Each Frankenstein takes 2 silver, 12 black, and 29 shamrock beads. Each pumpkin needs 4 kiwi lime, 7 black, and 29 orange beads. I used a small round board to make the pumpkins.