Felt Ball and Wood Bead Garland

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I have not always been a huge holiday decorator. We always decorate a lot for for Christmas, and some for fall/Halloween, but I haven't always done much for other holidays like Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. Then at the beginning of this year I was working on some Valentine projects and I decided I wanted to get and/or make some stuff to decorate my mantle because I wanted to be able to stage some pictures of the projects I was working on.

I bought a felt ball garland in red and pink, and then I made a fabric strip garland to go along with it. I really liked having some simple Valentine's decor on my mantle and now that February is over and March is here I wanted to do something similar for St. Patrick's Day and Easter. 

So first, for St. Patricks Day I decided on a couple of garlands I wanted to make. I liked the felt ball garland and I thought a rainbow one would be really fun for St. Patricks Day, and it would bring in more colors than just green. I didn't see one that was exactly what I had in mind, or the size that I wanted so I decided to make one. I found some wool felt balls in rainbow colors as well as some gold painted wood beads, to bring in the gold at the end of the rainbow, and strung them together to make my garland. 

It was super easy to make, just make sure you have a sharp needle. I found it to be a little bit more expensive to make my own than it was to buy one premade, mostly because I bought my Valentine garland at Micheals and was able to use a coupon on it, at full price they are probably pretty comparable. Also, it depends on how long you want your garland to be. If you need multiple packages of felt balls it will get more expensive. 

The nice part about making it rather than buying it is that you can customize that colors to be exactly what you want, and you can make it exactly the length that you want. There are pros and cons to both and it just depends on what you are looking for. 

How to Make a Felt Ball and Wood Bead Garland

You will need:

• 50-75 felt balls in desired colors (about 1" in size)
• gold painted wood beads
• crochet thread
• darning needle (sharp needle with large eye)

Instructions:

Decide on a pattern for your felt balls. I wanted a rainbow so I sorted my felt balls into a rainbow pattern, then I put 2 gold beads in between each rainbow. 

Cut the thread twice as long as you need plus a little extra to make loops on each end. For example, if you want a 6 foot long garland cut your thread 13-14 feet long.

Thread the needle onto the crochet thread and pull it halfway through so the ends are even. 

Fold over the cut ends and tie a knot to make a loop for hanging (you may want to knot it a few times to make a big knot to keep the beads on if you are putting beads on first). 

Thread the beads and felt balls onto the string by poking the needle through the center of the felt balls. Continue until you have the length that you want. 

Tie a loop at the end and trim off any excess thread.