Ornament Kits: Bead Angels and Snowflakes

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.