My niece recently found her stash of Perler Beads and asked me if I wanted to help her make something with them. I knew immediately that I wanted to do some retro pixel art with the original 8-bit Super Mario Brothers game characters. With Christmas coming up soon, we decided that making a Super Mario wreath decoration would be the perfect project for us.

8-Bit Super Mario characters patterns

To start out, I painstakingly created the sprite patterns we would need for all the 8-bit Mario characters. I made pixel art patterns for characters like Mario, Luigi, and Koopa Troopa, and favorite game elements like the coin, pipe, and 1-up. And I'm sharing my 8-bit Super Mario Brothers characters pattern with you!

The pattern has two pages, one of which is reversed. I did this to give you the option of whether you want to use the ironed, flat side of the finished pieces, or the reverse side, which still shows the round beads with holes.

Some characters don't make a difference which way they face, but some do, like the question mark block! I decided to use the non-ironed side of my pieces, because I liked the pixelized look.

Use mini Perler beads to make the Mario characters

Once you decide which way you want your pieces, print the appropriate pattern sheet and gather up your Perler beads.

To keep the Mario characters nice and small, I decided to use the new mini Perler beads that are only 2.6mm wide.

The mini Perler beads are about 1/4 the size of the standard beads, so it made my characters about 1-1/2" wide, which was perfect for adding to a wreath.

I specifically purchased a complete mini Perler bead set that included all the colors, peg boards, ironing paper, and tweezers.

Whatever you do, do NOT attempt to work with these without the special pointed mini Perler bead tweezers. They are so tiny that you simply can't handle them with your fingertips!

Make a Perler bead Christmas wreath

When the characters were all done, it was time to move on to the wreath! I made a Christmas wreath pixel art pattern that you can download and print.

For the wreath, I used standard 5mm Perler beads because the wreath is large (15" wide) and doesn't need nearly as much fine detail as the characters.

Plus this large wreath took a LOT of beads, and I didn't want to mess around with tiny ones. I bought bags of 1000, and used almost 1 bag each of black and red and almost 3 bags of bright green.

I didn't have nearly enough peg boards to do the whole wreath at once, so I did it in sections, marking my pattern with masking tape. As each section was done, I ironed it lightly then placed it next to what was done so far, and ironed the two pieces together. Eventually I worked my way around the circle and had a complete wreath.

Attach the characters to the wreath

When the wreath was done, I played with positioning the pieces on the wreath until I got a layout I liked.

Then I used a little hot glue to attach each one in place.

The pipe with flower and the big Mario were a bit large for the wreath, so I used them (and one of the blocks) to create a little game scene in the middle of the wreath. I hadn't planned this from the start, but I am so pleased with how it came out!

The pipe and block are just glued to the edges of the wreath, but Mario needed to be in mid-air, so he is dangling from a piece of fishing line that I glued to his back.

I am beyond thrilled with this retro Super Mario Brothers wreath and can't wait for everyone to see it this holiday season.