Help kids create their own fuse bead necklace inspired by Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar! It’s the perfect party craft and keeps them busy creating their own party favor. Follow our step by step instructions below. It’s so simple yet so fun! Get super creative and make pieces of fruit the hungry caterpillar loved to eat. Keep in mind the size of your bead creation if you plan to wear it as a necklace. These hungry caterpillar charms would also make a cute backpack charm.
Grab a square fuse board. Fill your triangle bead trays with fuse beads. I used about three shades of green, red, and light blue to make my caterpillar. Start with the face. The face will be a 4×4 square. Working on the far right place 4 red fuse beads in a horizontal row. For the second row, place 1 red, two green and 1 red, in that order. Place two more red rows below. Now you should have the head. Place two blue beads vertical, on both ends of the head. Add on more blue bead on the outside of each antenna.
Let’s build the body! Add columns of 4 beads, alternating shades of green. Make sure to offset the beads every two columns to give the caterpillars body added dimension. My body is 13 columns wide. The last two columns will taper down to three and then two beads.
TIP: Kids can use tweezers to place the beads on the tray.
Place a piece of ironing paper over the caterpillar design. Have an adult set the iron to a medium heat. Gently press the iron onto the paper for 10-12 seconds, allowing the beads to fuse. Cool. Gently pull paper away (design might come with it, that is okay). Flip beads over. Put another piece of ironing paper on opposite side and repeat the medium heat iron for 10-12 seconds.
Allow the beads to cool for 1-2 minutes. Using a sharp tool (if you need to do this), poke two holes in the two beads you will use the jump rings for. Using pliers, pull apart the two rainbow jump rings. Push them through the two holes you made. Find the center of your beaded chain and line the caterpillar and jump rings with the center of the chain. Thread the beaded chain into the jump rings and use pliers to close them.
That’s it! You’re done! How adorable are these caterpillar fuse bead charms? It would be fun to make various fruit charms too! If you love this craft you will also want to check out our hungry caterpillar party, caterpillar pull apart cake and the cute hungry caterpillar painted flower pots craft.