Billy Idol & Beaded Trees

Let me just start this post by stating something many of us would see as quite obvious…Billy Idol back in the day (can’t speak for now…haven’t seen him in years) was one fine looking fella.

photo source

Ok, so what does that have to do with this post you ask?  Well, Sunday morning VH1 Classic runs 80’s videos for a couple of hours and I find this the perfect time to enjoy my coffee and usually write my blog post….or occasionally something else creative.

This morning it was something else creative….finishing a bead tree I had started (I really hate to admit this) a couple few years ago.  I was moving along focused on finishing the darn tree when all of a sudden Billy comes on the TV singing Flesh for Fantasy and for some reason the 16 year old in me surfaced and I was riveted.  Crazy!

Ok, back to my tree…originally when I started this tree the idea came from where most of my best inspiration comes from….a swanky little boutique.  This was one of my favorite shops in Marblehead called Piara Luna…it has since closed :-( …there is a new shop in it’s place called Surfaces which it perfectly lovely…but it’s no Piara Luna :-(

Surfaces
33 Atlantic Ave., Marblehead MA
I actually really LOVE this shop!

One of my friends & I were Christmas shopping and Piara Luna had just the most lovely decorations so of course we headed in.  A gorgeous display had several of these beaded trees as one of its centerpieces…of course we both immediately fell in love….but as usual didn’t fall so in love with the price tag.  So we headed to the craft store to pick up the supplies to make them ourselves.

Bag of supplies...at least I had the sense to put it all in a zip
lock when I put it aside unfinished...

Since I had started this project so long ago of course I don’t have a picture of the inspiration vignette nor do I have any idea of what that “outrageous” price was…you’ll just have to use your imagination here.

But, I do have my finished product….

I used 3 different sized beads…10mm faceted clear, 8mm white pearl, 6mm faceted iridescent (AB) as well as iridescent sequins and pink seed beads.  I used pink seed beads to give it just a little hint of color since the rest of the beads are white or clear.

These were stacked (seed bead, sequin & bead)on an extra-long pin and then stuck into a Styrofoam tree.  I do have to confess though…there were a few starts and stops (the first 1" pins I used were a bit too small) and another lesson learned was the beads stayed place better when the tree was brushed with some Mod Podge first.

I also had purchased the tree topper back when I originally picked up the beads at my local craft store.  I ended up having to remove the wire that was meant to hold it on the top of a tree and just hot glue the star to the top of my tree.

So another project that I had been procrastinating is finished this year and I’m thinking it looks pretty good with the rest of my holiday trees.

Linking on Savvy Southern Style, A Stroll Through Life

Christmas Wreath Spruce Up

What do you do when an old fav has “seen better days”?  I love all of the blogs I see that just focus on repurposing their dumpster dive or sidewalk trash day finds.  It is so impressive what some folks can do with a can of paint and a little time/effort.

So this weekend in the spirit of repurposing I finally got around to sprucing up (no pun intended) my glass ornament encrusted Christmas wreath.

I initially made my wreath many years ago while on a visit to my Aunt’s house in Virginia…along with many years, this was several houses ago for both of us.  Aunt G had made one several years prior to our project day for one of her pals and had finally decided to make one for herself.  I happened to be visiting so joined in the fun.

My wreath has been well used but as time has passed packing and unpacking had definitely taken its toll on my colorful shiny wreath.  I had tried to fill in the broken balls over the years.  In the last several not so successfully…

What was left from my original ornament decorated wreath

So my “seen better days” wreath has been in storage for probably the last 5 years waiting for me to pay some attention and fix her up.

Sad, sad ornaments of Christmas past

I had collected plenty of new ornaments over the years from after Christmas 75% off sales…

Fresh from storage & covered in dust :)

I had the floral wire & glue gun…

What I hadn't had was the time…

Tray of miscellaneous balls...plenty left for another project.

After spending too much time blog surfing and admiring everyone else’s decorations and not enough time pulling my decorations out this weekend I found my motivation to finally fix the “seen better days” wreath.

It wasn’t hard…why had I procrastinated so long?

Step 1 – Remove all of the broken bits and pieces from ornaments of Christmas past.

Step 2 – Pull out all of the ornaments you want to use.  You can do a variety of colors or you can focus on just one color theme.  My old wreath was a myriad of colors…for the redo I noticed I had an abundance of gold, silver & red so I went with that.

Post glued just waiting for wire

Step 3 – Hot glue the tops to each ornament so the ornaments don’t fall off your wreath once they are attached.

Kind of a wimpy glue gun but my "big girl" glue gun had run out of glue...
so I pulled out this junior model....it worked just fine.

Step 4 – Gather the ornaments in clumps – 4 or 5 at a time and string them onto a piece of floral wire (approx. 8-10” long depending on how thick your wreath is)

The silver one was reused from the original incarnation..it's very aged
but I think that adds to the charm...makes me think of mercury glass.

Step 5 – Arrange the ornament clumps (that’s a technical term btw) onto the wreath as you want them holding onto each end of the floral wire

Step 6 – Wrap and twist the floral wire to the back of the wreath.  Trim any extra wire and tuck the ends into the wreath.

Step 7 – Repeat steps 4, 5 & 6 until you fully cover the wreath

Step 8 – Add bow & hang

Now you can do as many or as few clumps as you like and you can use as many different sized ornaments as you like as well.  I like the multi-dimensional aspect of using several sizes…I used I think 4 or 5 for my wreath.  I also used different finish balls…some iridescent some regular shiny….I also used some older balls that had an aged finish.  I think they kind of look like mercury glass.

Last minute addition was the angel ornament at 2 o'clock...this was
one of the first ornaments I bought back in the day..it was plastic
and really not so nice...but I like it on the wreath!

Now that it’s done & hung I’m loving the festive cheer it offers to my front door and regretting a bit the years that it sat in my attic waiting for a new life.

New wreath on an old door...here's hoping
Santa will bring me a new front stoop in 2013!

linking up on Savvy Southern Style and Beyond The Picket Fence