Beaded Christmas Tree Topiaries

I was flipping through an old copy of Better Homes and Gardens and found a photo of these great beaded Christmas trees.

I used two different sized beads (4 mm & 6 mm) to create a striped effect. I used hot glue to attach the beads to the cone form. If I were to do this again, I would use a super strong adhesive instead of the hot glue to avoid all the "gluey stringiness". The string was difficult to get off and caused the paint not to go on as smoothly as I would've liked.


I sprayed the beaded cone with a pearl glaze. After the glaze dried, I used a moss green acrylic paint and a foam brush to apply the paint. You have to work the paint in a little to get the color on the string. I repeated this step twice, and if I find the time and the energy, I'll probably do a third coat of each.

I got into a rhythm by the third one (which is the middle sized one). The beads look so much better if you're able to keep them in an alternating pattern and not lined up on top of each other, witch I didn't figure out until the last one.


WARNING: This project will take more glue and beads than you buy on the first trip to the craft store. If you are interested in making these and you live in the Annapolis area, you may not be able to find any beads. I'm sorry.