I absolutely LOVE wood bead garland. I wanted to create a bead garland for my Spring Tier Tray. So I grabbed 2 sizes of bead, some paint and got started. I think this garland turned out so rustic and sweet.
Step 1. Staining the Beads
Instead of painting the 14 mm beads, I thought I would try a paint water mix to stain them.
To make the stain I used water and 5 different Spring colors: Yellow, Purple, Pink, Green, and Blue. I thought these colors would look amazing and Spring-like strung together.
- I poured water into 5 plastic cups and then added the different paint colors to the water and stirred them well.
- I used a piece of twine and placed 5 of the 14 mm beads on it.
- I then submerged the beads into the paint and water mixture.
- I left the beads soaking in the mixture overnight.
- The next morning this is what the cups looked like.
- I pulled all of the beads out and placed them on a box.
- I used my hot air gun to dry the beads.
- Since the colors were a little lighter than I wanted after drying I mixed more paint with the water in the cups and placed the beads back in the mixture for a couple more hours.
- I then dried the beads again with my hot air gun to make sure I liked the colors.
- And the colors were perfect!
Step 2. Aging the Beads
- I removed the beads from the twine I had used to stain them and placed them onto a paper towel in separate stacks.
- I wanted the beads to have an aged, worn look to them.
- To achieve this I used very fine grit sandpaper and lightly sanded each of the beads.
Step 3. Stringing the Beads
- I used a piece of painter's tape and secured it to the end of the twine I am using for the garland. I did this so it would be easier to slip the beads onto the twine.
- I placed 1 bead of each color onto the twine and then I placed a 16 mm natural color bead before starting the next set of colored beads.
- I continued adding the beads in this manner until I had used all the colored beads.
Step 4. Creating and Attaching the Tag
- I used this little mason jar-shaped tag and painted it with Waverly Plaster chalk paint.
- I painted the tag and then used my hot air gun to dry it quicker.
- I gave the tag a second coat of paint and again dried it with my hot air gun.
- Once the front of the tag was dried I turned the tag over and did the same thing on the back and sides.
- I used 2 buttons and painted them with gray chalk paint.
- Once the button were dry I created a little bunny by gluing them onto the tag.
- I then glued a Dollar Tree pompom on the bottom button to give the bunny a tail.
- The pompom was a little too fluffy for me so I used my scissors and trimmed it down.
- For the bunny ears, I used a pipe cleaner, cut it down to size, shaped it into a bunny ear shape, and glued it to the tag.
- I used a piece of the same ribbon I had used on the tassel around the neck of the bunny and glued it into place.
- To attach the tag to the garland I pull the twine from the garland through the hole of the tag, tied a knot, and glued it.
- I thought the bunny was a little light on this white tag so I used some antiquing wax and the dry brush method to darken it up a little and to give it more of a rustic farmhouse look.
Step 5. Creating and Attaching the Tassel
- For the tassel, I used some of this purple ribbon I had in my stash and some of the twine I had strung the beads on.
- I wrapped the ribbon and twine around my hand 10 times and then cut it at the bottom.
- I left the ribbon and twine wrapped around my hand and placed another piece of twine around the top center of the tassel.
- I tied the twine around the top of the tassel, wrapped it around the tassel again, and then tied a knot to hold the tassel together.
- I cut the bottom of the tassel.
- For the top of the tassel, I used twine and wrapped it around the top until I was happy with the way it looked and then used hot glue to hold it in place.
- I then took the twine from the garland and the twine from the tassel, tied them together, and added hot glue to hold it.
Items Used for this project:
Dollar Tree:
- Twine
- Ribbon
Other:
- 14 mm Wood Bead
- 16 mm Wood Bead
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