I love the natural element that a wood bead garland adds to holiday decor! You can buy them ready-made, or you can easily make them yourself! This simple DIY tutorial will show you how!
Making them yourself is less expensive and is an opportunity to create a pattern you love and a custom length. This is one of the 3 Easy Christmas Garlands I made this year!
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
- Beads of various sizes
- String or thread
- A needle
- Tape
I ordered all my beads from Amazon! You can also find them at craft stores like Michaels, but I found that Amazon had the best prices.
These are the sizes I ordered. You could choose any size depending on what you are making your garland for! In this case, I wanted a more substantial garland to hang on the mantle or drape on the tree, so I chose a larger set of beads!
I wanted to make several garlands that were about 6 feet long, so I ordered 40 of the largest 30mm beads and 100 of each of the other sizes. (I had some of the smaller sized beads left over when I was finished).
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I placed all my beads on the counter and then laid out the pattern I wanted to create. It was too hard to remember where I was in the sequence if I tried to keep track while stringing the beads!
Once I had a pattern decided, I cut a piece of string to the desired length of the garland with an extra 6-8 inches on each end for making loops to hang it with.
I used crocheting yarn. It was nice and soft, but still strong. But any twine, string or ribbon would do!
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I tied one bead to the end of the string (leaving 6-8 inches for hanging) as a starting point.
TIP:
It was difficult to thread the yarn through the bead, so I taped a sewing needle to the end of the yarn to pass it through the beads easily.
I followed my chosen pattern and repeated it until I reached the desired length. I then tied the final bead (again leaving 6-8 inches of yarn for hanging).
TIP:
To make sure there are no spaces between your beads hold it up from the end and let it hang to the floor. This will eliminate any spaces before you secure the final bead!
And voila! A pretty natural wood bead garland to add to your holiday decor!
Thanks for the help Ollie! He tried to steal beads for a solid 20 minutes and then was exhausted, so it was nap time on the couch!
If even this simple DIY seems like too much work, ( I hear ya. Life’s busy!) I’ve listed some of my favourite store-bought options below!
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These wood bead garlands look so pretty draped around the tree, hung along the mantle, or even piled on a coffee tray or in a vintage dough bowl with twinkle lights! There are so many options and they are so classic you can reuse them every year!
For another quick and easy Christmas DIY check out How to Make a Dried Orange Garland or make your own DIY Advent Calendar!
Thank you so much for this post, I think I could actually attempt this with some measure of success !
You are welcome and yes!! If I can do it anyone can lol! I’m not actually that crafty and I’m busy so my DIYs will always be as simple as possible!!
This is so adorable! Exactly how many 6’ strands of garland do you get with the bead quantity you listed?
Thank you! I made 3 garlands and then had a few beads left over!