So this is a birthday present I made for one of my best friends. The first picture is the first time that I finished laying it out (yes, I said first time). Until this point I had always been ironing my projects on the peg boards. I knew that something this large would be problematic to iron on the boards due to how the heat causes the beads to start curling as soon as you move away from them with the iron. I went for it anyway because I was so excited about how good she looks, and what followed was one of the most soul-crushing failures I have ever experienced. I completely lost half of my work, and was really worried I wouldn’t be able to finish her in time for my friend’s birthday.

The second picture shows the solution to ironing large sprites, which is masking tape. Not only does it keep the sprite together while you iron the whole thing, even when it starts to curl, but it also allows you to iron the back side first which means you can melt everything a lot more and make sure the whole thing is totally solid. Since I like to keep the holes in the beads open rather than melt them fully, there’s a very fine line I run when I iron where if I melt a few beads too much, it looks pretty strange. Melting the back first makes that line a lot easier to avoid crossing.

And the last picture, obviously, is the finished product, 4000+ beads, all framed and ready for gifting. It turned out SO good, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result.