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
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.
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….unfortunately the link no longer works. I’ll try to find a new one this evening (5/28/12)
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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