Blended Batik & a Hawaii Story

This week's Studio L3 Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities challenge is blended batik. I found this technique a bit scary because it involves using an iron, but I ended happy with the Halloween card I made.  I used lavender and grape distress inks for the bottom layer and orange marmalade for the top layer.  Plus, I overstamped in black. For the title block, I used marmalade for the bottom layer and black soot for the top level.  I added some ribbon and brads and declared it done!
So, here's my Hawaii story.  Five years ago, our family traveled to Hawaii, and we put the kids in camp one day so DH and I could go snorkeling.  At the end of the day, the kids brought in some cool fuse bead creations. Fuse beads are plastic, donut-shaped beads that children arrange into interesting shapes like flowers, butterflies, trains, etc. I'd always wondered how these were made. I asked the kids what kind of glue they used. Henry said there wasn't any glue. When I asked him how the beads were stuck together, he said:
"The teacher brought in this big flat board thing that looked kindof like a surfboard.  Then she took a really hot metal thing and pressed it on top of the beads and they melted together."  Of course, he was describing an ironing board and iron, but my children had managed to reach the ages of 10 and 7 without ever learning what those things were! 
No wonder the blended batik made me nervous!