Beaded Holiday Balls

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

(Makes 6)
• 4" Styrofoam balls (6)
• Assorted strands of beads in each color: red, black, silvers, greens. Within each color of bead, make sure to have big beads, accent beads & smaller filler beads.
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• T pins (6)
• Spool of monofilament string
• A simple coffee mug for a stand
• Scissors

DIRECTIONS:

1. Divide the beads into colors groups. Select one group to start with.
2. Within the one color group, divide the beads into biggest pile, accent pile and smaller bead pile. These are to make flowers with the big beads and petals around it, then fill in the leftover area with teeny beads.
3. Place one Styrofoam ball on top of the coffee mug to provide a secure place to work.
4. Make a loop with the monofilament string. Knot it at the base and slide the T pins into the knot. Glue a spot on the Styrofoam ball and slide the T-pin into the dab of glue. This will become the hanger.
5. Decide patterns using the biggest beads first. Smaller beads will be used as fill-ins in between the big beads.
6. It works best to apply glue to the Styrofoam ball and then apply the bead.
7. Glue a big bead in place, then select smaller beads to be glued in a ring around the big bead. Go to the next spot to repeat this step, spacing the big beads about 1/2" apart.
8. Step down in size, using the next smaller beads and gluing them in between the big cluster beads to help fill in the space.
9. Put glue in the open spaces between the cluster of big beads and the accent beads and pour the smaller beads to fill in the gaps. Lightly press the teeny beads in place to fill in all of the holes. Don't allow any Styrofoam ball peaking through.