It's a family tradition in our house that the Little Lady makes tree decorations which we give to close relatives.
I started the tradition because I thought it was a lovely way to have a tree full of joy and memories, and I wanted to share that with her grandparents and uncles.
I started it her second Christmas, when she was 17 months. She made scribble stars as all she could do then was use wax crayons. And last Christmas she painted and glittered salt dough decorations.
I'll write up both those as tutorials and post some pictures of the finished items when the Christmas box comes down from the loft.
This year, I fancied something a bit more complicated as she is nearly three-and-a-half and capable of following directions a bit more, so long as she wants to of course!
Now, one of my rules of this tradition is that it must be relatively cheap. I don't want to end up paying loads of money, partly because me stressing about her 'ruining' pricey materials is not a fun way for either of us to spend our time.
I wanted something she'd like to do, that wasn't going to cost a lot of money.
Something she's been really into for quite a while is threading beads - you know, those sets of wooden beads and laces where they just thread the beads on?
So I hit on the idea of using real beads to make our decorations, but I wanted a bit more. I thought about our craft cupboard, and remembered that last year I bought some silver jingle bells in two sizes that we never ended up using for anything.
I thought the bells would be perfect threaded with the beads.
We went to Hobbycraft (probably similar to Joanns in the US) and had a search around for beads. They had a bead pick 'n' mix which was about £5 for a large pot, so I searched through and collected all the white and clear beads I could find.
Another lady came along and started to do the same thing, but there weren't loads of white and clear beads, and we nearly had a stand off! But then she saw the Little Lady, and I emotionally blackmailed her in a passive-aggressive way by saying "Oh sweetie, I hope there's enough beads here for you to make your decorations with for Grandma and Nanny" and the lady went away.
I hope I'm not going to hell for that!
Anyhoo, we got our pot of beads and then I grabbed a skein of embroidery silk. In fact, I wanted a ball of lurex yarn but even with an assistant's help I could not find what I was looking for, as they seemed to have sold out of silver lurex thread, so I bought a white embroidery thread with a silver thread through it.
Later, you'll find out why I could have just bought plain white and saved myself a lot of searching.
So here are my supplies:
SUPPLIES:
beads
jingle bells
embroidery thread/thin yarn to match your beads
tapestry needle
scissors
Depending on your design, you will need to work out how many beads and bells you will want, but we ended up doing three large bells, three small bells, and 4-6 beads per decoration.
So to make ten (one each for grandparents and uncles/aunts, and a few for you) you need 30 large bells, 30 small bells and 50-60 beads. But you might want to make more or less, or have more or less beads and bells on each one.
I just had a pot of beads and a bag of bells, but I ended up with 49 usable beads, 36 small bells and 35 large ones.
I say usable beads, because my tapestry needle wouldn't fit through all of the beads - they had different-sized centres. I did try when picking them to get the ones with large holes, but when I tried them all out before getting the little Lady involved (essential to avoid frustration and tantrums) not all of them would fit the needle through.
I could have used a thinner needle, but then I'd have had to use a sharp. I wanted to use tapestry needles so that the Little Lady wouldn't prick herself. If you're doing this alone or with an older child, you might feel comfortable using a sharp, but still check it will go through your beads!
I tried out a few design ideas, but the only real rules I came up with were:
* Hang bells in threes
* Have bells at the bottom so you can secure the thread (or I guess you could use a seed bead, but I don't have any)
* Use thread to match your beads
That's it!
Oh, expect for * Don't bother with fancy metallic thread!
Why?
Have a look at the finished icicles - you can't really see the thread!
Just play around with a few design ideas before deciding what you're going to do. Here were our ideas:
If you're using coloured beads, you can experiment with how you mix the colours up.
When threading, work from whatever end of your decoration you like. Use about 40cms (16 ins) of thread and pull it through your beads and bells. Then, put the bottom bell at the half way point on your thread (you can tie a knot halfway before you start threading to make this easier) and loop the thread through that bell so it is secure.
Then, simply thread back up to the top of the decoration and both your strand ends will be sticking out of the top, with plenty to spare.
Tie two knots (a reef knot or just two granny knots) right above the beads/bells to secure the decoration. Now is ht eitme to shuffle things around a bit till it is pleasing.
Then tie the very ends of the thread together in a reef knot as that will be most secure and least likely to come undone. To tie a reef knot remember 'left over right and under, right over left and through, pull tight'.
That's it! You now have a loop of thread which enables you to hang it on your tree. Just trim your ends (or even attach seed beads) and get decorating!
Originally, I had planned to do three strands tied together to make a cluster, but that didn't work for two reasons: 1 - I didn't have enough beads and bells! 2 - They were going to be way too heavy. Even a strong tree branch would have bent under their weight.
But I really like how these ended up. They are like icicles, and as well as hanging them on the tree, they would also look great strung along a fine cord to make an icicle garland which you could hang along a shelf, mantlepiece or even just on a wall.
Do leave a comment and share your design ideas!
