If you’ve been following this blog for the past 10 years you’ll already know that I love anything and everything that has to do with the beach! Matter of fact, I decorate the inside and outside of my home in a beach and coastal theme, including my Christmas tree!
Back in October 2017 I spotted a beautiful beaded Christmas Tree garland at a local boutique. It was done in beach & coastal colors and was about 10 foot long. I fell in-love with that holiday garland, but not the price! Holy cows, they were asking $149.99 for the 10 foot garland! Sorry Charlie, but I’m not paying $150 for a Christmas tree garland!
After having my heart broken with that price, I decided to just make one myself. I started visiting some of our local craft supply stores and would pick up beads when they were on sale. To keep costs down I visited yard sales and flea markets too! I found some great beaded necklaces in the colors that I needed for .25 cents to $1.00 a piece. I brought them home and tore them apart, just for the gorgeous beads!
The most expensive items were the faceted Austrian crystal beads, but I had to have them, because I knew they would add the pizzazz and sparkle that I wanted to achieve. To cut costs…I shopped for those online and ONLY purchased them when I found them at a price I could live with. Yes, I was patient while accumulating all of my beads!
So, how did I make my beaded Christmas Tree Garland? Well, I’m briefly going to tell you and it was super easy to do!
To make the stringing process easy…I decided to cut my clear fishing line into manageable lengths. I believe each strand was 4 foot long. You’ll want to knot one of the ends with a BIG knot, so that your beads won’t fall off. I separated all of my beads into color and style, and then I came up with a pattern that would work for the amount of beads that I had.
Next, you’ll want to string your beads onto the clear fishing line. You can knot in between each bead or not…I chose not too as I liked the cleaner look. I carefully threaded each bead onto the fishing line until I had about 6″ left. I made a knot close to the last bead. You’ll want to repeat this process for all of your strands until you get them all done.
Once I had all of the strands done, I tied them together to make one super-long beaded strand. You’ll want to make tight knots and place your knot very close to the bead. If needed, you could place a small dab of glue to make sure your final knots hold in place, but if you do, make sure you use a quick-drying, dries clear type of glue.
I went to a local dollar-type of store and picked up a plastic shoe box with lid. It’s the perfect size for storing a beaded garland and will help protect it from getting tangled or damaged. You can see how nicely mine fits within the plastic storage box.
I’m looking forward to putting our Christmas tree up this year and adding my new handmade beach & coastal theme garland to it! Once our tree is up and I have it onto the tree, I’ll come back and update this post with a proper photograph of it wound around our tree!
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Your garland is beautiful . I don’t think I would have the patience to accrue all those beads in order to get them at
a great price.
This garland is so pretty I would love to have it around all year. I love these colors they are so soft and warm. I would love to see your entire tree it looks so cool.
I’m going to publish some photos of our Coastal Christmas Tree next week. Stay tuned!
This is a beautiful garland. It will go so well with the rest of your decorating.
I am so impressed by how you figured out how to make this lovely garland that is so beautiful. Perfect for a tree with coastal themes and with your directions one could personalize with other colors and versions. Very neat.
I bet the garland will look beautiful on your tree. It will be even more special because you made it yourself.
You are so talented! For some reason it never occurred to me to make my own garland. However, your homemade version is lovely and I like the pretty blue and white colors. Looking forward to seeing the picture of your tree with the pretty garland.
I like those colors. Of course, if someone wanted, they could go traditional red and green, but I tend to like going with a few non-traditional colors.