Glass Bead Icicle Ornaments Christmas Craft Project

This is a super simple, yet high impact project, with literally thousands of beautiful bead and color combinations. Our finished ornaments range in size from 3-1/2" to 2-1/2" long -- a great size for smaller feather trees.

Supplies: Glass Beads, Wire (26 or 28 Gauge), Dresden Stars, Glue (Alleen's Tacky Glue - Original or Quick Dry), Scissors, Paint Brush or Pencil, Needle-nose Pliers

Step 1: Cut an 11" piece of wire, bend it in half and twist it around a pencil or paint brush handle to make a hanging loop.

Step 2: Lay out beads in desired order then string them onto wire.

Step 3: Using needle-nose pliers, make a small, flat loop at the base of the beads. Wind the tails of the wire around twice near the bottom bead to secure. Bend excess tails downward and cut close to flat loop.

Step 4: Apply glue to two Dresden stars. Gently place them back-to-back over the flat wire loop, taking care to line up the stars' edges. Let dry.

Step 5: If necessary, gently adjust and straighten your icicle.

Tips: Though clear beads are beautiful, we used only silvered styles in order to hide the wire.

Try different bead/color combinations by laying them out on a piece of paper first -- you'll be mesmerized by how many variations you can create and how changing out one or two beads can really transform a combination.

You don't need a ton of beads per ornament -- the styles we made use just 3, 4 or 5 beads.

Be mindful of glueing your Dresden stars on gently -- press too hard and you'll see the silhouette of the wire underneath.

Arranging your beads according to size gives a sleek and sophisticated look -- try large to small, or small to large to really make your ornaments look like drops.

If you're unsure of which beads to combine, here are formulas to easily replicate five styles we've created above.

DECO = ROUND (6 mm) + FANCY (GB049) + ROUND (6 mm) + DROP (GB003) + ROUND (6 mm) + STAR (DF2088)

BELL = ROUND (6 mm or 8 mm) + DROP (GB001 or GB002) + ROUND (6 mm or 8 mm) + STAR (GB054) + BELL (GB051) + STAR (DFW277)

FACETED = ROUND (6 mm or 8 mm) + FACETED (GB073 or GB030) + ROUND (8 mm or 10mm) + DROP (GB050, GB002 or GB278) + ROUND (6 mm) + STAR (DFW277 or DF2088)