Modern Minerals

Star Ornaments

                 So I was attempting to make the beaded Star Ornament in the center of the photo. These are out of the:

 However, I had a hard time finding the 16mm jump ring for the center of the ornament. The pipe cleaner and the10mm jump rings were easy enough to find. I also tried to make the other two star ornaments but they just didn’t turn out tidy enough for me to use.

My Star

                So this is how my star ornament turned out. Instead of using the 16mm jump ring for the center of the ornament, I found a larger silver plated ring down at my favorite local bead shop. It measures just about 1.25 inches across. I think it gives the star a much different look. I think If I decide to make any more, I will forgo the pipe cleaner and just try making it with regular wire. I purchased the beads at my local JoAnn’s store.

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This is just a quick post about the absolutely easiest way to make snowflake ornaments. Buy Snowflake Forms.  If you really want to make them yourself you can, but I don’t think it is worth the time or effort to do it. If you are really in to hand made things you can trim three pieces of wire and solder them together.  I still have yet to get my soldering iron out. The other ways are to either wrap three pieces of wire the same way that I did with the pipe cleaners, or you can wrap them together.

Instructions for wrapping the wires together can be found here. 

If you want to purchase the frames, I found mine at Craft Warehouse in Oregon. I’ve also seen them at 1 of the three bead shops that I frequent here in Utah.  If you want to order them online you can find them for sale on Ebay, through the Modern Minerals store. Some of them look like they are quite a bit more expensive than others, check the sizes. They come in a wide variety.

    A few words of safety about working with the snowflake forms.

1: Wear Safety Goggles:  When I first used them I was under the impression that you were supposed to make a small loop in the end of the wire. The wire is very hard. The first couple of ornaments I made put so much pressure on the glass beads that they shattered.  Aside from being out the cost of the beads, it is also pretty dangerous. If you decide that you want to make loops on the end, please wear safety goggles. Also, while trying to do it this way, several of my forms had spokes break off.

2: Use A Thimble: I decided to use plastic backings for earrings. They work wonderfully. They keep the beads snuggly on the wire. I just nip the extra wire off at the end of the ear backing. BUT, and this is another big but, be very,very careful sliding them on. I cant count how many times I have punctured the end of my finger with the wire and it isn’t comfortable. I was able to grasp the it on the edges and slide it down, but I really recommend that you use a thimble.

Those are my two safety warnings for using ready made forms.

I like to do a mix of seed beads, crystals, silver beads and craft beads. I know, I know, but those silly little paddle beads really make them look like snowflakes. So  many of the snowflake ornaments that I see are just straight spokes with small beads. Be creative! To hang them I just tie a thin string around the wire just below the earring back.

These are some of the ones that I have made.

My Favorite

Close up of earring back

variation #4

Variation #5

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  This is the last of the pipe cleaner ornaments! I’m so glad. You can not imagine how much space in my dining area is taken up by craft supplies. I have a few more frames to make for my daughter’s class and then I am packing it all up. I plan to keep out the wire, seed beads, pearls and crystals but everything else is going to be stowed for next year.  There are still a few ornaments that I would like to make, but they are made with regular beading supplies instead of craft supplies.

   As a bonus. I got a check in the mail today so I will be placing a bead order tonight. Although, maybe I should wait until after I open my new books on Christmas….. OR, I could just place another order then! I just love the holidays!

     This is the easiest way to make frames out of pipe cleaners for snowflake ornaments.

pipe cleaners

   You will need 3 6 inch lengths of pipe cleaner. I like to use the metallic silver. If you want your snowflake to be a bit larger I don’t see why you can’t use longer lengths of pipe cleaners.

Give em' a twist

       Twist two of the pipe cleaners together to form an “x”

Add the last pipe cleaner

      Take the last pipe cleaner and wrap it around the center of the “x”. Take some pliers and give the center of the frame a little squeeze to snug everything up.

Ta Da! 

At this point you have  a basic frame. You could also do this with regular wire. I don’t like to use this particular frame *as is* because I don’t think the beads are always evenly distributed. I like my snowflakes to have a neat orderly appearance. So, I froo froo mine up a bit.

Add a little sparkle!

      The first time I did this I tried to use regular tacky glue and it did not work at all.  This requires the use of a glue gun. I keep mine on a low setting with the hopes that I won’t burn myself. I used pliers to hold my little crystals and I put glue on the back of two of them. Then I sandwiched them over the center if the frame. It is important to get it centered or your ornament will look funky.

Add your beads

       Since I already had the glue gun out, I thought it might be fun to add a few more pieces of pipe cleaner to the ends of my spoke. I decided that I didn’t like it and I went back and trimmed it off. I’m showing it to you though because it might be someone else’s cup of tea. I think a lot of projects are a process. I know they are for me. One of the great things about beads is that if you don’t like something, generally it is pretty easy to change it. Unless you are me.

Useless

       Lesson learned. The funny thing is that about 4 hours before I made this ornament, I was telling my son’s teacher to remind the kids not to do this. How ironic. :p I was happily trimming off the excess pipe cleaners and I accidently went all the way around. If I had been paying attention I would have left a little bit on one of the ends to make a loop. So now I can’t actually hang my pretty little snowflake. I really like this snowflake though. If you are using craft beads to make your snowflake and you can find them…. the large iridescent bicones really look nice. This snowflake has a very simple pattern.  1 bicone, 1 round, 1 paddle bead and then one more bicone.  I am going to see if I can pull one of the end beads off and super glue a piece of fishing line. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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Beaded Wreath Ornaments are very easy to make. Just like the button wreath, for a simple ornament all you need to do is make a circle of beads.

A simple beaded wreath ornament

        This is my version of this beaded wreath ornament. I left the bow off. I like to keep crafty things simple.

Jingle Bell Wreath

       This wreath ornament is made out of 9mm  green jingle bells. I took the photo, and then I took off the bow.

Thread the bells on to the wire

          I used green wire to make this jingle bell wreath.  To start with you want to make a small loop in the end of the wire. Thread on the bells. Gently shape the wire into a circle. Take the end of the wire and run it through the loop that you made in the first step. Gently pull it snug. Bend the wire up and wrap a loop large enough to run a string through

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I’ve said before that I am fan of buying ornament kits. It is a very inexpensive way to get a variety of beads. The free instructions that come with them are an added bonus. In most cases you can not buy the beads for the cost of the kit, so it is just best to get the kit.   Ebay is a great place to pick these up. I was fortunate enough to snag a vintage Walco kit for making a beaded Mr and Mrs Claus. Interestingly enough I have also seen kits on ebay for some of the ornaments that are being sold on eBay and etsy.

I had some kits left over form previous years as well as one or two that I picked up this year so I thought that I would share them with you for ideas. 

Angel Kit

       I actually got the glue gun out to make these. I really like that wings are made out of tinsel pipe cleaners. These beaded angels look great near the top of the tree, or tied to gifts with a bow.

Bead snowflake ornament

   This is probably the only bead ornament kit that I have seen that it might be less expensive to make if you know how to do it. The cost of a bag of pipe cleaners and two bags of beads will run you slightly more than the kit, but you will have enough stuff to make more snowflakes. These would look good on a tree decorated with vintage ornaments. I thought Martha Stewart used to have directions for these on her site but I was unable to find them.

Martha

        Martha does have instructions for pipe cleaner snowflakes though and I bet you could glue beads on to the end. She also has instructions for making a tree out of green pipe cleaners made by the same method. I know this isn’t a kit, but this sort of fits in with the ornament above that is a kit. I found it was easier to just trim the pieces of pipe cleaner so that they are a bit longer, wrap them on, and then trim them to the length that you want.

Snowflake?

      I picked this kit up at Michael’s this year. I paid just about a dollar more than I would have for one bag of beads. It is supposed to be a snowflake but I think that it looks more like a flower. I personally don’t care for this design. I think that the center looks very messy.

Wreath

         This is another ornament kit that I purchased at Michael’s this year. I think this one is cute. You start at the top of the candle and then work your way around the wreath. It reminds me of an ornament my grandpa’s girlfriend made when I was younger.

icicle

     I purchased the kit to make the icicles a couple of years ago, although I am pretty sure I have seen it on eBay this year. This kit had pretty beads.It would have been impossible to find them in local craft stores. It might be possible to buy them in bead shops, but it is likely that it would cost you more to purchase them that way.

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I considered making these all individual posts. I know a lot of people are not in to pony beads though. I know I’m not. I’d probably drop a blog pretty quickly if I came everyday for a week and only found pony beads. So I’m going to lump them together in one post. Now having said that I also have to say that of all the ornaments I’ve made this past week these ones are my children’s favorite. They both wanted to hang Rudolph on the tree.

So here we go.

The Jolly man himself

      This is a pretty big Ornament. The pattern calls for pink pony beads and I could not find any at my local craft store. Truth be told, I also did not want to spend $5 for 3 pink pony beads. So I purchased a bag of earthy colored beads at Walmart. I used the ivory beads for his face and fished out a couple of the slightly darker neutral colored beads for his cheeks. I used the same bag of beads to make Rudolph, the main part of the wreath and the star ornament. The Pattern for the beaded santa ornament can be found here and here. 

Easy peasy

            Instructions for this pony bead ornament can be found here. It says that this pattern is easy enough for first graders and I would have to agree.

Mrs. Claus

        The instructions for Mrs. Claus can be found here. I did not like this bead ornament as much, so I opted not to make Santa. 

Rudolph

       I only made this beaded ornament because I had enough beads in the right colors. Instructions for Rudolph can be found here. Of all the pony bead ornaments he is my favorite. I even used green string because it was what I had on hand. When I finished it, I regretted using the green string. I think Brown would have worked better. However, the green blends in on the tree. I’m so glad I made this one!

Wreath

          Instructions for the wreath ornament can be found here.  This is such a simple design. I wonder how it would look if it were made with Swarovski Crystals.  I don’t have the crystals to do it with on hand, but I do have some green pearls. If it works, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Snowman

        Instructions for the snowman ornament can be found here. Instructions for another beaded snowman ornament can be found here.

  This site has instructions for 2 more snowmen, ball ornaments, a Christmas Moose, A Christmas Tree, Candles and a Gingerbread boy. 

Here are links for instructions to make  Toy soldier, An Angel, Poinsettia/Snowflake, and a Penguin. I will probably try out the snowflake myself.

Star

        This is another pony bead ornament that I like. This is the one that I wanted to make in to kits for my daughter’s class. I didn’t care for the directions but I have since found better directions. They can be found here.  I see these for sale online all the time. Now you can make them too! I left the dangles off of mine and I opted for earthy Christmas colors. There are also instructions for them at this site.

Here is one more beaded angel ornament that is made with Pony Beads and Safety Pins.

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  I awoke this morning to snow falling heavily from the sky. Fun stuff. The kids went out to build snow forts and I got to sit on the couch, sip tea and watch it come down. It is certainly starting to feel a lot like Christmas. I have devoted this weekend to baking cookies.

   I have pictures that I will work on posting while the goodies are in the oven. I won’t get the beads back out until after I finish SupremeMe’s scrapbook album. I hope to finish that up on Monday.

  I am slowly starting to burn out on Christmas. Between ornament kits for the kids classes, making a dozen different kinds of cookies, hand made gifts, Christmas shopping and growing a baby, I am very,very tired.  I hope that I’ll get the spring back in my step after all the big holiday projects are done. I am excited about putting aside the craftier beads that are used to make Christmas Ornaments and returning to my love of making jewelry.

     Today  my first Christmas present arrived in the mail. Lol. I’m supposed to check SupremeMe’s mail while he is out of the country, so I felt obligated to open it. It is a beading book from Japan! I think that the projects are going to be a bit more difficult to follow in this particular book because a lot of the projects are crocheted. I won’t really get to sit down and go through it until it is actually given to me on Christmas morning though. I may even wrap it myself and put it under the tree to remove the temptation! :p 

    I can’t wait until the rest of the books arrive. I was also pleased to find a bead shop in France that I can order from. After the holidays I want to sit down and order some French beading magazines. They look like they will be very interesting and they will be much easier to translate! Most of my favorite bead blogs belong to French Women.

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               These are the very first two snowflakes I made two years ago. I learned how to make snowflakes following directions on this website. Kayray has great directions. This bead snowflake ornament is made with two rounds.

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Sample 1

Sample 2

The frames for these beaded snowflake ornaments are made out of pipe cleaners. I like this method because it makes a fairly secure little frame for the kids to work with. Also, the center beads end up being evenly spaced. For some reason it just never works out that way for me when I just twist the wires together. These two ornaments were made a couple of years ago. I think that they have held up very well.

Supplies

For each frame you will need:

3 6 inch pieces of pipe cleaner

2 star flake beads* (18mm)

8 round beads(5-6mm)

an extra piece of pipe cleaner.**

* I am calling these Star Flake beads because that is what they are referred to as in my angel kit. I have heard these called paddle beads, starburst beads and sunburst beads. Call them what you will, they can be found with kid’s crafts beads in JoAnns. I’ve looked in Michael’s and they have redone their bead section. I have seen a few small packages of them in the bead section but it does not look like an economical way to buy them. I purchased mine at Robert’s crafts. I think I have also seen them at WalMart.

** In the photo I have a small peice of pipe cleaner. I have found that when I am making a lot of snowflake frames that it is less wasteful to use a full length of pipe cleaner. I just keep using it until I run out and then grab another one.

Lets get started

Take the extra piece of pipe cleaner and slide on one of the round beads. To secure the bead you can either make a small loop in the end of the pipe cleaner or you can just bend the end of the pipe cleaner over the bead. I prefer the second method because it saves me a few extra seconds.

moving along

Once you make sure that your round bead isn’t going to go anywhere, you need to slide two starflake beads and another round bead on to the other end of the pipe cleaner. move them down towards the secure bead, but not all the way.

Slide one StarFlake bead down

Take one starflake bead and slide it down so that it sits snugly up against the first round bead. Give them a little tug to make sure that they wont come off.

This was a tricky photo to take

   To do this next bit I stand the pipe cleaner upright so that the snug beads are on the bottom.

Assemble the frame

      You want to take the remaining pieces of pipe cleaner and lay them down across the star flake bead so that they are nestled in to the grooves of the star flake bead. You want to check and make sure they are pretty much even so that all of your spokes are about the same length. I smooshed mine down in there a bit to make taking the photo easier.

Slide the other two beads down

   This was another photo that was difficult to capture clearly. You want to slide the other star flake bead down so that you sandwich the pipe cleaners between the two star flake beads. Starflake beads nestle down in to each other, so the paddles from the top star flake bead will sit on top of the pipe cleaners. Slide down the remaining round bead and make sure everything is good and tight.

Trim off the excess pipe cleaner

      Trim off the excess pipe cleaner, but leave enough to bend over the bead so that it is secure. I grab the little piece of pipe cleaner with a pair of round pliers. I take the end like I am going to make a small loop in the wire. When I roll my wrist out it pulls the pipe cleaner up through the beads and snugs it up even more. Then I just bend it over the side of the bead.

Voila

   This is what a completed frame should look like. Obviously there are easier ways to make a tinsel frame for making snowflake ornaments. I use this pattern for making kits that kids can assemble because it makes a sturdy little frame. I think the less time spent repairing a frame, the better when it comes to class parties. I usually add on the 6 round beads at this point as I feel it makes the frame a bit sturdier. It also helps to space out the spokes on the frame a bit more evenly. 

  For the kits, each child will have an assortment of beads to make their snowflake. I buy as many different craft beads as I can because I like to make sure that the kids can be creative. Besides, snowflakes are supposed to be different. If you plan to attend the party, you can always do a station and have the beads in bowls so that the kids can choose them. I don’t generally attend the parties so I make sure each child has plenty of beads in the bag. The important part (and it is time consuming) is to actually count out the beads so that there are multiples of 6. If you put in 7 or 8, you are wasting beads. Same goes for if you put in 4 or 5. in the latter example you are wasting even more beads.  I always make sure that there are 6 round beads in every bag that match the ones in the frame. They are the perfect size for finishing off the snowflake ornament. They also look nice up against the star flake beads.

A few things to remember. I also put a ribbon or an ornament hanger in the bag so that the kids have something they can fold the pipe cleaner over.

These may be no brainers to you and I, but it is good to have the teacher or helper review a few things before the kids get started.

1: Your spokes can only be as long as your shortest piece of pipe cleaner.

2: You want to add a dab of glue when you slide on the last bead so that it is secure. (if you don’t want to use glue you can bend over a tiny piece of the pipe cleaner, but gluing on the the last bead makes for a  prettier ornament)

3: Just in case you have not started with the shortest spoke, you do not want to glue on ANY beads until you have all of the spokes completed. 

4: Chances are good that not all of the spokes are the same length.

5: Once all of your beads have been glued on, you want to trim off the extra pipe cleaners, BUT you want to leave about half an inch on the longest spoke. That will be folded over the ornament hanger. Now, if they accidentally trim off all the pipe cleaners you can probably still wrap a piece of fishing line between the last two beads.

It is also very important that you choose beads that will easily slide on to the pipe cleaners. This project is not recommended for young children as beads provide an opportunity for choking. I assemble these kits for my children’s third grade class.

Have fun!

My daughter’s class loved doing this project.

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Penelope is not feeling well so I am posting in her place tonight! She will get up the next post in the beaded X-mas Ornaments soon.

While you are here, I wanted to let you know about Japanese bead books. Penelope has been checking them out for awhile on eBay and finally decided to buy a few.

Can’t read Japanese? Neither can Penelope!  Most of the Japanese beading patterns are clearly illustrated, making it easy to follow along.

Here is a list of the ones she decided to get.

Beads WORKS Special Swarovski
Beads Jewelry For Gift
Loved bead -Beads Accessories

Check them out in the Modern Minerals store at the following link: Japanese Bead Books

If you have a favorite book about beading Japanese Style, let us know below.

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