Christmas Craft: Sparkly Wool Snowflakes and Easy Beaded Snowflake Ornaments

As I write this there is the first snowfall outside and it reminded me of the snowflakes we used to cut out. One year we used those to make beautiful ornaments for the tree. We simply folded and cut the snowflake from heavy weight fusible webbing and then ironed the pattern to a piece of medium white wool. I haven't experimented, but I would bet that felt could be used also.

Once the pattern is ironed on clip out the cloth to follow the design. Remove the paper from the webbing and place two ends of a 10 inch looped ribbon onto the webbing on one of the arms of the snowflake, in about 1/2 inch. Put another piece of wool on top of that and fuse them together with an iron, making certain to follow the directions on the webbing. Clip the snowflake out using the fused first piece as your pattern. Make certain that you don't cut the ribbon while you are doing this.

Use a white SnowWriter paint pen to completely seal the edges. I sewed 1 inch crystal bugle beads and seed beads, white snowflake sequins and the little plastic star beads on but you can glue gun them on if you choose. The final effects are dramatic. I love the white iris sequins for the hint of color and use the crystal seed beads as the center of them. I put one of these combinations on each arm of the snowflake. Use white and crystal for decorating to keep it elegant.

Snowflakes brought to mind another snowflake ornament that is simple, beautiful, and can be made with the help of the kids. We made these in one of the classes that I taught and the parents loved them as gifts.

Beaded Snowflakes

This is so fast and simple you will love me when you are through. God knows I can use all the love that I can get. Each pin requires 10 pearl-headed corsage pins. These are the ones that you pin on corsages so they are easy get and very cheap. You need a small cork, cheap again. Crystal beads in various shapes (I especially like the long ones to divide up smaller beads.) and an iridescent glitter paint pen.

Put the beads on the corsage pins leaving space at the bottom to push into the cork. Make a set of 4 beads that are exactly the same. These will be the four points of the snowflake; the top, bottom and sides. Make another set of four that are like each other but not like the first set. Place these into the cork directly between the first four. Your snowflake is flat so to give it depth. Create two more pins that have beading alike and put them out the sides. Color the cork with the glitter pen and tie a monofilament cord to the top to hang. You can use any heavy transparent cord or a silver one if you prefer.