Easy Christmas Crafts: How To Make Beaded Snowflake Garland

A couple of weeks ago, I was out shopping at one of my favorite local home decor stores and I spotted some glorious beaded snowflake garland draped over a chandelier. I'm sure I wasn't the first person to oooogle it, but I'm fairly certain I was the first to stop, stare, and draw a little diagram of it on a napkin I found in my purse.

Note to self: Don't leave your phone at home or you will be the weirdo who draws on purse-napkins.

Anyhow, that day I went to the craft store, got 2 bags of beads, came home and spent the next 4 hours making THIS:

Oh, and it wasn't just one little snowflake either. It was 20.

TWENTY.

Yes, if you're wondering, after I finished, my fingers packed up their bags and moved away.

They didn't want to chance a repeat of the 4-hour-garland-craft-session.

Here's the thing: I love to bead. It's always been something I love to do. As a teenager, I remember having an entire tackle box full of a million types of beads. I love to make things, I love shiny objects, and I have nimble fingers...it's the perfect tedious hobby for me.

My snowflake garland was next level for me though. I won't lie.

The title of this post is 'Easy Christmas Crafts'. 

That's just to make me feel better.

Title = total lie.

However, since I know some of ya'll will want to push your philanges to the brink of exhaustion, I will share the tutorial with you anyways.

But first, I'll show you what I did with the garland.

I draped it over the mirror that hangs above our fireplace.

I love the way it reflects the lights of the Christmas tree and adds a little extra sparkle to the room!

  

Here's a wideshot for a little perspective. I love our big stone fireplace and have big plans for it eventually. I'd love to hang a giant mantle, and update it with a modern firescreen.

But for now, this Christmas, I was able to update it with an ornate mirror that I found at a salvage store. It was originally dark gold, so I painted it white with black accents.

I thought it was the perfect place to hang my blingy snowflake garland.

Especially since my Christmas tree is already maxxxxxed out with decor this year!

I also tried the garland out on the sofa that hangs above the couch.

I love it there, too, but can't decide. It's on the fireplace mirror for now. 

Which one should I cho0se?!

So, there it is. 4 hours worth of teeny-tiny snowflake beading. 

I can't help but be so proud of my teeny-tiny bead accomplishment. 

If you follow me on Facebook, you may remember me hinting about all of this bead nonsense. 

THIS was what I was talking about. 

And this is also what I was talking about when I said that although my husband is super supportive and loves everything I do, this is the first project I've done where he actually picked it up, looked at it, and said 'WHOA.'

Life goal #179 ACCOMPLISHED.

I officially rocked Jesse's world with a craft.

teehee.

So, now for the tutorial....'cause I know you wanna rock your husband's world with a bead-creation, too.

Don't fight it. It's only natural.

First off, I have to give credit where credit is due. After I came home from seeing the chandelier-garland that inspired me, I did tons of googling trying to find someone, somewhere who could tell me how on earth to bead a snowflake.

I came across this tutorial HERE on Country Living's website, and it proved to be exactly what I needed!

The above image is from Country Living's tutorial. For detailed instructions, you can visit there. I followed their tutorial almost exactly except for a few minor changes. 

First, they say to use a wire snowflake form. 

I have no idea where-on-earth those exist, so I made my own.

I just used simple beading wire.

(Stay tuned later this week to see what I did with the rest of those beading supplies!)

Then, when I was done with my TWENTY snowflakes, I wrapped the end of the wire around a section of a long beaded strand of short beads (the garland).

I also put little hoops at the ends of my garland strands just in case I ever wanted to use it on my tree.

This project nearly killed me....you can BET it will be around for a long, long time.

My great-grandchildren will inherit this darn thing.

:)

That's all she wrote, gals! (I'm assuming very few men are reading this beading tutorial. Except Bob, my father-in-law, who is my most awesome and devoted reader. Hi Bob!)

For more of my Christmas crafts, please visit the following:

Thrift store Christmas decor

How to decorate a tree on a budget

DIY ornaments

DIY ornament wreath

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