Beaded Snowflake Ornament #7
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!
Beautiful
This is very pretty. I will be trying this with my 6 year old grand daughter. Thank you for sharing.
Very pretty and so easy!Making them in different colors would be fun, also.
just what I was looking for an I dea for Chrismas
I am wondering where you got the beads, what size are they, and what are they called. I am having trouble finding them. I have another project that uses similar beads. I remember them from when I was younger and they were everywhere. Now I can’t seem to locate them easily.
Wehre do I get the beads
Hi Bonnie and Terri
I got the beads for these at a local craft store when I was living in Utah. You should be able to find an assortment of craft beads at a local JOann’s or Michael’s. I’ve seen the shaped beads called paddle beads, sunburt or starburst beads. I don’t think that they are usually in the bead section though. It seems to be they are usually over with the kid’s craft stuff. As for size, I don’t have the packaging for these anymore but I’d guess they are 12mm? You want them to be large enough that they securely hold the pipe cleaners, but not so large that they slide through. I’m so sorry I don’t have an exact mm size for you.
Size 12mm paddlewheel beads will not fit on pipe cleaners. Neither will 18mm. I had to get 25mm from ebay. I don’t know if all pipe cleaners are the same thickness but I got mine at Walmart.