What’s this? What’s this? It’s a Jack Skellington Perler Bead pumpkin!
What’s this? What’s this? A Perler Bead pumpkin for your Halloween decor?
For several years, I’ve wanted to make a Halloween pumpkin with Perler Beads. The official Perler site has instructions on how to do it, and it’s so easy. You can check Perler’s pumpkin family HERE.
Since my whole family is a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I decided that the perfect pumpkin for us would be a Jack Skellington pumpkin.
You could easily adapt these instructions and put any face on any pumpkin for Halloween. You would just need to create the facial pieces that you want the Perler Bead pumpkin to have.
Making this Jack Skellington pumpkin was so easy! So follow along if you want to add the Halloween King to your Halloween decor this year.
Supplies needed for Jack Skellington pumpkin
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- Black Perler Beads
- Black ball pins (if you don’t have any, I got mine at Walmart in a multicolored pack)
- White pumpkin (if you can’t find one, read on, I’ll help you make one)
- 2 large Perler Bead pegboard
- Ironing film
- Iron
How to make your Perler Bead pumpkin
First let’s talk about white pumpkins. I got mine at the grocery store, but if you can’t find one easily you can spray paint a normal orange pumpkin white. Just use an acrylic spray paint. It will take a couple of coats, but it’s really pretty simple. Make sure to follow the instructions on your paint can. Or you can always just buy one of those foam pumpkins at the craft store. I’ve seen them in white many times.
Now that you’ve got your white pumpkin, you need to make your Perler Bead pieces. If you are new to the world of Perler Beads check out my Perler Bead tutorial.
The patterns for Skellington’s face are below in the photos. Even though Jack’s smile is on 3 pegboards in the picture, it will fit onto 2 pegboards. I just used 3 because I was actually creating the smile as I went and wasn’t sure how many boards it would take. The rest of the face easily fits onto one large pegboard.
Every tutorial I’ve ever written talks about ironing your Perler Beads on both sides. Not this time! You want your pieces to be able to bend to fit on your Jack Skellington pumpkin, so only iron it on one side.
Because they are only ironed on one side they will bend easily. Now, that being said, Perler Bead pieces that are only ironed on one side are not as sturdy as pieces ironed on 2 sides. We’re not making a toy, so it really doesn’t matter. BUT, just be sure not to bend the pieces too much or they will break.
Completing your Jack Skellington pumpkin
The final step to complete your Jack Skellington pumpkin is to attach the Perler Bead face pieces to the pumpkin. This really is just a matter of finding where on the pumpkin the pieces look the best and then sticking them on.
On the Perler Bead website, their instructions said to use toothpicks. Yeah, I tried that. It wasn’t my favorite. It was pretty hard to get the end of the toothpick through the melted beads.
Don’t get me wrong, the toothpicks do work, but I figured out a much, MUCH easier method. Instead of toothpicks, use sewing pins. Oh you know, the ones with the colored balls on the end. The pins go right through the Perler Beads and then through the pumpkin. The head on the pins help keep it from going all the way through the beads. Plus, if you use pins with black heads, you can’t even see where the pieces get attached. You can see them on the photo below, but there are barely noticeable.
I used a total of 9 pins to attach my face: 3 for the mouth, 2 for each eye, and 1 for each nostril. It’s so easy. Don’t worry if you don’t put Jack’s face where you want it the first time, you can easily move it to any part of the pumpkin.
That’s it! You now have your very own Jack Skellington Perler Bead pumpkin. I wonder if I should put a Santa hat on him so I could use him for a Christmas decoration too.
If you are looking for more fun Perler Bead crafts for Halloween, check out my posts below
- Perler Bead Halloween Bowl
- Perler Bead Pumpkin Spice sugar scrub
- Jack-o-lantern tea light holder with Perler Beads
Oh, oh and before you leave follow me on Instagram where you can see what I’m working on next or sign up for my newsletter where I share all the cool crafts I’m creating.