Dec 17

Dec 17 Beaded Bow Ornaments

I love wrapping gifts. I love how the wrapping can make a gift even more special. With ribbon or yarn or a little gift topper, you can elevate your gifts rather inexpensively. At Christmas, I love adding a little gift topper to my gifts. Gift toppers are perfect for Christmas because they can usually double as ornaments, so you are really giving a gift with a gift!

Over the years, I have made a variety of gift toppers that double as ornaments: giant pom poms, felt monograms, Fimo clay ornaments, decoupage stars, and yarn wrapped candy canes. You can find a lot of these on my website! This year, the bow trend is going strong, and I wanted to try my hand at beaded bow ornaments. Once you get the hang of these, they take only about five minutes to make, and only require beads and wire!

Supplies

Wire. I used a 0.4 mm wire from Amazon (affiliate link). The thicker the wire you use, the less flimsy your bow will be. You do need to be careful that your wire isn’t too thick to go through your beads. Pay attention to the size of your bead opening and the size of your wire. One bead will have the wire go through it three times, so keep that in find as well.
Beads. You’ll find that the 0.4 mm wire can fit through quite a few beads. I tried this with larger seed beads, wood beads, and glass beads. All worked great. These 8mm beads from Amazon worked well, and they came in a double pack so that you can make two bows with each color.
Wire cutters and wire pliers. These aren’t absolutely necessary, but they make the process a little easier. This pack from Amazon comes with four different jewelry making tools. I actually have all of these tools in my craft supplies, and I use them more than I thought I would! I’ve had my set for years.
Yarn or string to hang your bows from your Christmas tree or to attach to a gift.

How To

I’ve created a little video of the process for making these bows. I sped this one up, but they take about five minutes with the 8 mm beads. You’ll have a ton of cute bows in no time!

Once you get the hang of these, you will want to make them in every color and size! You may even have a lot of beads in your stash that you can use for this project! These can be a great stash buster! I hope these help deck your halls and trim your tree!