Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Beaded Snowmen



* Beaded Snowmen *

also previously referred to as the
particular ornament 
"specifically requested ... by my 11-year-old,
which would be difficult and time-consuming
to make for his 14 classmates"


Above photo is the beaded ornament
I made several years ago;
here is this year's Beaded Snowmen ornament:


 

 Here are the supplies you'll need for
each ornament:
three 5/8" wooden beads,
six buttons (3 red, 3 white)
tiny wreath ornament,
pink powder blush and a cotton swab,
acrylic paint in white and black,
Tulip Dimensional Paint in orange,
and an 18" length of craft wire.
An 1/8" dowel and a paint roller
to make painting the beads easier,
and a paintbrush and stylus
for touch-up painting and dip dots.




In order to paint these beads more
efficiently, I threaded them
onto a 1/8" dowel
and used a paint roller dipped in
white acrylic paint.




After I rolled several coats of paint
onto each bead, I used a paintbrush dipped
in white paint for the touch-ups
(the paint roller didn't reach the area of 
the bead nearest the holes)




Use the cotton swab to apply pink powder
blush to the cheeks of each
snowman bead.




Tape the dowels securely to the table
to make painting the details easier.
Dip the stylus into black paint
and dot the eyes and the mouths on
each of the snowman beads.




Use the Tulip Slick Dimensional Paint
in orange to apply the carrot noses.


To see step-by-step photos
of blushing the cheeks,
dotting the eyes and mouths, and
creating the dimensional noses,
click here.




Fold the 18" length of craft wire
in half around a paintbrush handle to create
a loop (do not twist to close ... yet)


Put the loop over the bottom
of the mini wreath ornament and twist the
ends to secure the wreath.
This will be your hanger.
Thread your beads and buttons
in the following order:
snowman bead, two buttons, snowman bead ...
alternating until you have an ornament
with three (or more) snowman beads
and a red and a white button
on the bottom.




Twist the ends of the wire to secure
the buttons and beads;
use the paintbrush handle to curl
each end of the wire into
a spiral curly cue.




Hang ... and Enjoy!!!
(NOTE: I used a small dot of
hot glue to attach each red button to
the snowman bead so the
heads wouldn't spin around).
On my old ornament, I painted a face
on both sides of the bead so
the extra glue wasn't necessary.


Peace and Beaded Snowmen!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

easy-to-do and beautiful ornament!!!!
Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

This is soooo cute! Very nice job!! Thanks for the great tutorial!! Charlotte from AZ

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this post. I love snowmen and have them scattered around at Christmastime. These will be nice additions to my home; but also nice gift toppers too. Debbie in NC.

Kitra said...

Smart move using the roller! I loved your "assembly line" approach to the painting/detailing! These are great and I see myself making these in the near future :)

Kitra said...

Smart move using the roller! I loved your "assembly line" approach to the painting/detailing! These are great and I see myself making these in the near future :)