HOLIDAY DIY: Rainbow Beaded Garland
This year we (hahaha...just me) chose to have a rainbow of Christmas decorations. Our tree is silver, which I love, so it needed a rainbow of colors to go with it's unusualness. It was covered in mostly handmade ornaments and curled chenille stems, but it was still missing something to fill it with more color...and hide any ornament voids. I love the look of strands of beaded garland, but finding this in rainbow colors at a decent price, was impossible. So, being the creative gal and stalker of Dollar Tree that I am, I decided to look for rainbow party necklaces instead. The round beads are just like the strands of pre-made beaded garland, but in the colors I want. If you can't find these necklaces at Dollar Tree (mine were hiding in the party section) or want specific colors, Party City carries packs of single colors, for about $2 a pack. Make sure they are the round beads and not oval, or this won't work.
SKILL LEVEL: Easy Peasy
COST: $7 for 7 packs of beads from Dollar Tree. Cost varies based on color preference and size of area you are decorating.
TIME: This goes faster with friends. This took me about an hour total, including decorating.
SUPPLIES:
1) Each strand of beads should have a section where two beads are fused together. If they don't, well lucky you! Use the scissors to separate these beads. This should be easy. If you don't have a fused beads section, just trim the string between any two beads. The beads are fused onto the string, so don't worry about any falling off.
2) Take two necklace ends (from different strands), cross them over each other and twist. You might hear a snap. This locks the ends together. To unlock them (say to switch out the color order) carefully untwist them. I made strands that were 8 necklaces long, for easy use, locking the joining ends of those long strands, as I added a new one to my tree.
3) Drape them on your tree, stair banister, mantle, porch, balcony, or where ever else you want colorful beaded garland. I draped them on my tree, securing the swag by wrapping them around the branch each drape intersected with. This fills in more color and gives a neat loopy look.
TIP: To store them, unlock your strands into shorter lengths. Wrap the strands around pieces of cardboard, so they don't get tangled. Store them in a big shoe box. It's much easier to untangle shorter strands than larger ones, should you need to.
You can use these for any sort of celebration. This just happened to be when I needed a rainbow garland. If you already have a beaded garland (we have a silver one which would just blend into the tree), you can jazz it up by tieing on fabric scraps and ribbons, attaching old jewelry, or maybe colorblocking them with plastic spray paint. To see how I made other tree decorations, check out my Rainbow Feather Tree Topper, Pom Pom Tree Skirt, and Rainbow Feather Tree Topper tutorials. However you decorate this holiday season, have fun with it. Happy Makery!
SKILL LEVEL: Easy Peasy
COST: $7 for 7 packs of beads from Dollar Tree. Cost varies based on color preference and size of area you are decorating.
TIME: This goes faster with friends. This took me about an hour total, including decorating.
SUPPLIES:
- Strands of party necklaces with round beads - I used 7 packs to cover my tree
- Scissors
1) Each strand of beads should have a section where two beads are fused together. If they don't, well lucky you! Use the scissors to separate these beads. This should be easy. If you don't have a fused beads section, just trim the string between any two beads. The beads are fused onto the string, so don't worry about any falling off.
2) Take two necklace ends (from different strands), cross them over each other and twist. You might hear a snap. This locks the ends together. To unlock them (say to switch out the color order) carefully untwist them. I made strands that were 8 necklaces long, for easy use, locking the joining ends of those long strands, as I added a new one to my tree.
3) Drape them on your tree, stair banister, mantle, porch, balcony, or where ever else you want colorful beaded garland. I draped them on my tree, securing the swag by wrapping them around the branch each drape intersected with. This fills in more color and gives a neat loopy look.
TIP: To store them, unlock your strands into shorter lengths. Wrap the strands around pieces of cardboard, so they don't get tangled. Store them in a big shoe box. It's much easier to untangle shorter strands than larger ones, should you need to.
You can use these for any sort of celebration. This just happened to be when I needed a rainbow garland. If you already have a beaded garland (we have a silver one which would just blend into the tree), you can jazz it up by tieing on fabric scraps and ribbons, attaching old jewelry, or maybe colorblocking them with plastic spray paint. To see how I made other tree decorations, check out my Rainbow Feather Tree Topper, Pom Pom Tree Skirt, and Rainbow Feather Tree Topper tutorials. However you decorate this holiday season, have fun with it. Happy Makery!
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