Beaded Star Ornaments

This holiday season I've challenged myself to re-purpose and create handmade decorations for my home instead of spending a fortune on expensive pre-made items from the stores.

I have been having a delightful time!

The very first craft of the season were these adorable beaded stars.

Ridiculously easy to make, but oh so pretty and stylish in their simplicity.

I went a little over-board and made more than I planned.

I will be scattering them around the house. . . on the tree, hanging in windows, on hooks, attached to pretty packages . . . the possibilities are endless.

To make your own . . . .

You'll need:

Beads

craft wire

wire cutters

the tool with the pointy tip below 

(sorry, my seems my brain has froze up and I'm unable to come up with the correct name for that tool)

ribbon

Simply cut a piece of wire about sixteen inches or more long.  Make a small loop on one side to prevent beads from slipping off and then begin stringing the beads onto the wire.  You'll want to keep count of how many beads you string on in order to keep all the star points even.  For the large red beaded star I strung fifty beads onto the wire.

Once you have all your beads strung, twist the wire around itself at the ends to form a little "knot" of wire.  If the wire is too long, use the wire cutters to trim some off and then use the other tool to squeeze the ends into the wire so they don't poke out.

Then it's time to start shaping the star.

Starting at the wire "knot" count down the line of beads to the fifth bead,  bend the wire between the fifth and sixth bead.

Continue this process along the whole length of your wire.  It may seem a little wonky in the beginning, don't worry.  Somehow by the time your to the end of the wire it all works out.

Once your back at your starting point you should have a pretty good looking star.  Gently bend the wire into more of a star space, allowing the beads shift and move however they need to in order to look nice.  Don't worry overly if each point doesn't have the same amount the beads.  I've found that different shapes of bead like to sit and move differently but in the end it is not noticeable if one side has four beads and the other has five.

Next, simply tie on some ribbon to cover the wire "knot" and hang it up.

This is a really easy project for the kiddos too!  

My girls loved stringing the beads and I would simply knot the wire for them.

Towards the end, we started making other shapes like hearts, diamonds, and circles.  It was so much fun.

The girls ventured out to different colors but I stuck to my favorite red.

Sure hope you try your hand a making yourself some.

I will warn you though, you won't be able to stop at just one!

Have a great day!

Robin

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