DIY Wood Bead Christmas Garland

Hi! We are back with another DIY for this Holiday season. This time we have a really simple DIY Wood Bead Christmas Garland. This really isn’t much of a DIY because it’s so simple once you have all the supplies. I have just had this idea in my head for most of the year, and really wanted to just do it because I really wanted a garland for my mantle in my new apartment. It is my first Christmas in this apartment so I don’t quite have everything dialed in. Anyway, I really wanted to make a simple garland, but not be too colorful because I felt like it just wouldn’t fit in with my already existing decor. So I decided to dye more wood beads, and then also mix in some large painted wood beads. This is really a simple and stunning DIY, and I hope you might consider giving this one a go.

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Here is how to do it:

DIY Wood Bead Christmas Garland 

Supplies:
– wood beads: I used three sizes, Xmm, Xmm, and Xmm
– wood skewers
– cups or other objects to use as s drying aid (see direction no. 1)
– white acrylic paint
– thread to string the beads for dying
– RIT red dye
– glass bowl
– rubber gloves
– paper towels
– leather string

Directions:
1. Choose the beads you want to paint. I choose to only plaint the really large ones. Use your white acrylic paint and paint your simple designs onto the beads. Thread the beads onto skewers and suspend them on cups or other objects to dry easily.
1. String all your wood beads onto a string. It really can be any kind of string, in my situation I used twine. This baked the dying portion easy because all the beads in one bath get dipped more consistently.

2. Get ready to dye: Line your work surface with plastic or several sheets of newspaper or paper towels, have a few paper towels laid out nearby to wipe up any spills and/or blot your gloved hands before you touch things. Put on your gloves. To mix, I used 2 overflowing tbsp of dye to about 3 cups of HOT water. You can either microwave, covered with plastic wrap, for a couple minutes (check after 1 min) or use a tea kettle and measure out with a glass measuring cup. Stir thoroughly with a metal spoon.

* I recommend you dye a test bead first to see if your mixture is how you want it. If it’s too dark, add more water. If it’s too light, add more dye. The wood will appear slightly lighter when dry. Generally, the longer you leave it in, the more saturated it will be.

3. Take the beaded string and submerge it in the dye, hold under and agitate gently. Take it out and let the excess dye drip back into the bowl.

5. Rinse the beaded string thoroughly in a sink under cold running water.

6. Hang to dry for a couple of hours. You don’t want to beads to be wet or they will rub off coloring onto the leather.

7. String your painted beads and dyed beads in a random order onto your leather string. Once you have string everything, watch this very helpful tutorial very carefully and learn how to tie a perfect loop knot.

8. Hang and enjoy your super cute Christmas garland. YAY!

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