Ornate Bead Christmas Tree Ornament Craft

This beaded Christmas tree craft make a cute ornament or decoration for your presents.  While this little creation has been created in green to help set it off on your green tree, you can also use green beads and use light colored ornaments for decoration. 

And please share any crafting ideas that you have with us.  we would love to hear from you.

Craft Supplies Needed

• 1- 18mm plastic crystal cartwheel bead (also known as paddlewheel or sunburst beads)
• 5- 6mm round plastic red beads
• 8- 6mm plastic round faceted crystal beads
• 4- 6mm round plastic gold beads
• 8- 3mm round plastic gold beads with large holes
• 60- 3mm round plastic pearl beads (approximately)
• 1- 7" length of thin gold cord for hanging the ornament
• 1- 36" length of 22 gauge wire (approximately)
• Wire cutters
• Scissors

Crafting Steps:

1. We are going to start with the star on top and the tree trunk.  Cut a piece of wire approximately 6" long, as well as another piece of wire 30" long. 
2. Thread both the long and short pieces of wire through the crystal cartwheel "star" so that the short and the long pieces of wire now will hang equally out both sides of the cartwheel star.  Now twist these two wires together to secure your cartwheel star, so that four wires now hang down below the star (two short and two long)
3. Slide all four wires (two short, two long) through the 6mm red bead.
4. Now the shorter wires will form the trunk of the tree.  Put the two wires together so that they touch.  Slide the beads in this order through both short pieces of the wire:  3mm pearl then  6mm gold.  Repeat this 4 times.  This is your tree trunk.  Bend the wire a little so the beads will not fall off, but leave some gap between the beads so we can weave wire through trunk wires to form the branches.
5. Branch one.  Now it is time to form the branches.  On each long wire that is currently sticking out of the top red bead, place the following beads: 3mm white, 6 mm crystal, 3mm white, 6mm green, 3mm gold. This forms the top branch on each side.
6. On each side, loop the wire around the 3mm gold bead, thread back through the 6mm green bead and then place two more 3mm pearl beads on the wire.  Now thread each long wire through the two tree trunk wires just below the top most 6mm gold bead on the trunk.  After threading branch wire through the middle trunk wire, thread each wire through one pearl bead on the other side of the trunk, before starting branch number two.  Now you have the top branch on each side.
7. Branch two on each side (shown ion steps 8 and 9 below) is exactly like steps 5 and 6 except where we have underlined below.
8. Now it is time to form the branches.  On each long wire that is currently sticking out of the top red bead, place the following beads: 3mm white, 6 mm crystal, 3mm white, 6mm red, 3mm gold. This forms the top branch on each side.
9. On each side, loop the wire around the 3mm gold bead, thread back through the 6mm red bead and then place three more 3mm pearl beads on the wire.  Now thread each long wire through the two tree trunk wires just below the top most 6mm gold bead on the trunk.  After threading branch wire through the middle trunk wire, thread each wire through two pearl beads on the other side of the trunk, before starting branch number two.  Now you have the top branch on each side.
10. Branch three and four.  Repeat steps 8 and 9 two more times to form the rest of the branches, noting the only difference between the branches is that you will alternate a green and red bead at the tip of each branch, and more importantly, you add one more 3mm pearl bead to the bottom of each successive branch and thread through three 3mm pearl beads on the other side of the trunk on the third branch and only two beads on the fourth branch, so we can form the base.  (See the difference between steps 6 and 7 versus steps 8 and 9- the differences are underlined)
11. You will now have tow wires left dangling from the pearl beads two away from the trunk just under the last 6mm gold trunk bead.  String both wires through the same five 3mm pearl beads that form the tree base and tie the wires off on the lowest branch. Cut off the excess wire and guess what- you are done.
12. Enjoy.