Wooden Bead Christmas Ornaments

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I have never been the Pinterest perfect, Instagram worthy Christmas tree kind of person. I love pretty trees, and sometimes I do want to have a perfectly coordinated, themed, pretty tree. But the fact of the matter is our big tree that we put up in the living room is a crazy assortment of ornaments, some from when I was a kid, some from my husband, ornaments that our kids have made or been given. There are ornaments from vacations we went on and ornaments that that represent favorite things. And to make it even better we let the kids decorate it so they are never evenly dispersed, some places may not have any ornaments while others have 2 to a branch. The top is usually a little more sparse than the bottom. They each have their own box of ornaments that they put on the tree every year, and they love it. It is fun to watch them pull out the ornaments and remember their ornaments and when the made them, or who gave them to them. And any time that I wish for a minute that this year we could have that beautiful Instagram worthy tree it all goes away when I see the kids excitedly pulling out their ornaments and we decorate our crazy mishmash of a Christmas tree. I love our tree. 

But one style of ornaments and Christmas decorations that I have seen a lot lately that I have really been drawn to Christmas ornaments that are in neutral colors, simple styles, and natural materials. It kind of reminds me of a Scandinavian style and I just really like the simplicity of it. A lot of those ornaments seem to incorporate natural wood tones, often in the form of wooden beads. 

I decided after seeing a lot of those ornaments that I wanted to make some ornaments using wooden beads, so I bought a big bag and made a few different styles. I thought I would share the ones that I made, and how I made them, but really once you get started you can make whatever you want. 

And the fun part about these bead ornaments is that they are super easy to make, easy enough for kids, especially the long straight ones which were my favorite ones to make. My kids saw me working on them and a couple of them wanted to make their own. So that means that even if you are like me, with a crazy tree full of unmatched ornaments made by your kids,  you can still make these and add them to your tree. Or you can do a whole tree in a simple, neutral color, natural material style and have a pretty put together tree. Either way they are fun and easy to make, and will look great on your tree. 

How to Make Wooden Bead Christmas Ornaments

You will need: 

• assorted wooden beads (I bought this pack from JoAnn, it didn't say the sizes but they are about 3/8", 5/8", and 7/8" in both round and faceted)
• Cotton yarn in natural color (or other thread for stringing beads, you want to make sure it can fit through the holes of your beads)
• scissors

Instructions:

You can make a lot of different shapes and styles of these ornaments, I chose 2 basic versions, a round/wreath style, and a long/icicle style. Then I did one that kind of combined the two styles into one. 

Round/Wreath Ornaments

This is a very simple style of beaded ornament to make.

For this style simply cut a strand of yarn about 12-18 inches.

String the beads on the yarn in the order you want. I did one of all round beads of the same size and another with a pattern of 2 round 1 faceted. 

Push the beads to the center of the yarn so you have long ends on both sides. Then use the ends to tie a knot tightly pulling the ends together. The tighter you get it the more round your ornament will be. 

Once your ornament is securely tied, pull the two ends together, and holding them together tie a knot 2-3 inches up from the ornament to make the loop. Trim the ends. 

Long/Icicle Ornaments

This style is also really easy to make. 

I made a few different versions of this one. Because I bought a assorted pack of beads that had large, medium, and small of two different shapes of beads I thought this style was the most fun to make, because I got to play around with the sizes and shapes of beads a little more than I felt like I could with the round ornaments. Each ornament only took a few beads because I used the larger beads. I used between 4-7 beads for each ornament. 

The first thing to decide with this style is if you want to add a tassel on the bottom or not. Whether or not it had a tassel determined which end I started at.

Tassel

For the tassel version I started with the hanging loop. 

Cut a piece of yarn 18-24 inches. 

Fold in half and holding both halves together tie a knot 2-3 inches down from the center.  This makes your hanging loop. 

Then start with the top bead and string the beads onto both strands of yarn. It is a good idea to add a smaller bead at the top, or tie a larger knot so that the top bead doesn't slip over the knot. 

On most of the long ornaments I just did one bead after another until I had the length that I wanted. For one I split the strands and added two beads at once, before going back to one at a time. To do this just separate the 2 strands, put one bead on each strand, then put them back together and pull both strands through the next bead. 

When you get to the last bead tie a knot securely at the bottom but do not cut the yarn. 

Make the tassel by wrapping yarn several times around your 4 fingers. When you feel it is full enough cut the yarn and slide the ring of yarn off of your fingers. Use the tails on the ornament to tie the ring of yarn onto the bottom. Tie the two sides of the tassel together and wrap using the tails. Trim the tassel to the length that you want. 

No Tassel

You can make this the same way as above but once you knot the bottom just trim the tails so you just have the 2 tails hanging down. 

Or the other option, that I used on the ornament in the picture, is to work from the bottom up. 

To do this cut your yarn the same as before, and add one bead. 

Pull the bead to the center of your strand.

Then holding the 2 ends together add the rest of your beads onto both strands. 

When you have enough beads tie a knot at the top of the beads. 

Holding the strands together tie another knot 2-3 inches up to make your hanging loop, trim ends. 

Combo/Long Loop Ornament

This ornament kind of combines the other two styles, a loop section on the top and a straight section on the bottom with an optional tassel. 

To make this ornament start in the same way as the long ornament with a tassel. 

Begin with a strand of yarn 18-24 inches long. 

Fold in half and tie a knot 2-3 inches from the center to make your hanging loop.

Separate the 2 strands and add the same number of beads to each side. I added 5 beads to each side. 

Then when you have the number you want, pull the 2 strands together and add more beads pulling both strands through. I added 2 more beads. 

Knot the end and add the tassel in the same way as above.