Beading Ideas

You clicked on an article called beading ideas, so instead of boring you with a lot of technique talk (which you can find in our beading instruction article) I’m really going to give you a list of ideas that you can use. These might be ideas for projects or just things to thing about when you’re consider what you would next like to do with your beads.

Jewelry Beading Ideas

• Try making a necklace with just one bead or charm. Or pick a pair of beads or charms to make earrings out of.

• Use one type of bead exclusively in a project, such as seed beads that are all the same color.
• Use only one material of beads in a project, such as all glass beads or all wooden beads.
• See how many different necklaces and bracelets you can make with the same basic pattern: five similar or identical beads followed by one accent bead.
• Make a super-long, light string of beads (with crimp beads or other strong beads glued on the ends) to make a fancy, stylish belt.
• Try wire wrapping: Go into your back yard or go for a walk in your neighborhood. Find an interesting (smallish) rock that you would like to use on a necklace. Wrap soft flexible wire around the rock so that the wire will hold the rock in place. Make a loop in the wire and attach it to a cord.
• Bead potpourri: Also known as bead soup, this is a great activity to do, especially if you have beading friends. Dump a bunch of different kinds of beads together (if you do this with friends, mix other people’s stashes with your own) and then have a free-for-all. What kind of new designs can you come up with from seeing everything all mixed up?

Home Décor Beading Ideas

• Make a simple table runner (purchased on home-sewn) a little more interesting by adding beads to the short edges. You can string a bunch of beads on a thread and hand-sew that all along the edge, or make bead drops using thread and a few beads that you can sew directly into the edge of the runner, spacing the drops out every few inches. This works for pillows, too.
• Beads can be glued to almost anything, from picture frames to mirrors, candle holders to candles. If you’ve had the same old decorations sitting around your house for a long time, look for things that could be jazzed up by adding beads. Just glue them on using decoupage medium, and spray with sealer when dry so the beads won’t fall off as easily when the item is handled.
• Make beaded tie-backs for your curtains. Measure the length of your current tie backs and make a beaded “necklace” of similar size. You could even make them in seasonal colors and give your room a new look every few months.
• If you have a lot of parties using glass stemware, make beaded drink identification tags. These are a lot of fun to make with a group of people. Buy charms and beads to fill the loops, or search your stash for the perfect items.
• Make a dream catcher by wrapping thread around a circle of wire so that it looks like a spider’s web. Add beads, charms, feathers and other things that are pretty and make you smile.

Other Crafty Beading Ideas

• Use seed beads or other small beads as decoration on homemade cards, bookmarks or scrapbook pages. Green beads can by used as grass, blue as sky, or any color just to add a bit of texture and fun to a design. You could even try embossing a rubber stamp pattern onto a piece of cardstock and then coloring in the design with beads.
• Make a cute little drop (three or four beads on a piece of wire with a loop at one end) and use it to jazz up plain wrapping paper by attaching it with the nametag for the gift. Or add a couple to the middle of a bow for a gift or as an accent to a wreath. Or loop them through the curling ribbon used to tie a gift bag closed.

• How to Make Key Chains with Beads
• Easy Homemade Christmas Cards
• Make Your Own Holiday Photo Card
• Christmas Craft Projects

• Free Knitting Patterns
• Free Beading Pattern
• Free Baby Knitting Patterns
• Free Baby Crochet Patterns
• Free Sewing Patterns

• Beading Jewelry
• Jewelry Making Idea
• Category:Beading
• Jewelry Making Workshop
• Glass Beads