Beaded Tree Tutorial

Christmas Diorama

          Dear friends, my 7 year old daughter is rather taken with beads these days and is forever making necklaces and bracelets [see her Beaded Necklace]..I caught the beading fever from her and tried to make a beaded tree using some seed beads I have had like since forever!

Beaded Tree Tutorial

My beaded tree is rather amateurish so professional beading experts do forgive me but I was so  thrilled my experiment turned out ok that I am sharing the tutorial so that a novice with no beading experience whatsoever can make a beaded tree

How to make a beaded tree

This beaded tree  is quite simple and quick to put together ! Some of the leafy branches were made by my 7 year old and it took just approximately 1 hour to make the unadorned beaded tree!

Materials required for your DIY beaded tree

Beaded Tree Tutorial

• Seed Beads –whatever colour you want your tree to be
• Wire -24 G or even thicker ones [of less gauge]– I worked with 24 G and it was quite easy to twist and bend.
• Wire cutter or scissors.

Beaded Tree Tutorial

Cut a piece of wire  16- 20 inches long[I didn't measure … I just cut wire of length from my fingers to my shoulder!] and  bend it in half

Beaded Tree Tutorial

Thread 10 to 12 seed beads on the wire.. you don't have to count  but eyeball the length of the beaded area.The commonly available seed beads [unless you buy high quality expensive ones] generally vary in length in one packet and if you thread the same number of beads the length will vary .

Beaded Tree Tutorial

Push the beads to the bent center of the wire

Beaded Tree Tutorial

Cross the wires and twist to form a loop of the seed beads.Keep twisting to give the beaded “leaf” a stem. Make your stem as long as you want.
Tip: To quickly and easily twist -hold the beads and twist  rather than holding the wire and twisting

Beaded Tree Tutorial

Thread beads in the same way on one arm of the wire

Beaded Leaf Tutorial

Bend the wire at the length you want the leaf to branch out and holding the beads in your hand twist to form a looped leaf like before.Keep twisting till the wire reaches the earlier leaf’s stem.

Beaded Leaf Tutorial

Thread beads on the other half of the wire in the same way and twist to make one more beaded leaf

Beaded Leaf Tutorial

Twist the 2 arms of the wire to a length you want . If you want add more leaves on each arm of the wire as before.

Beaded Leaf Tutorial

You can make a conical “Christmas tree” type of tree by adding leafy branches of different stem lengths and having different number of leaves.You can make  three or four “2 leaf” branches and add them to your 3 leaved top branch.

Beaded tree Tutorial

Decide how much down the top branch you want the next layer of branches and twist on the leafy branches one by one .

Beaded Tree Tutorial

So your tree is already shaping up! Add branches with more leaves or longer stems as you go down the tree trunk.There is no hard and fast rule on lengths and number of leaves on how to make your tree..I experimented  quite a bit and my tree turned out different every time and it was fun!

Beaded Christmas Tree 

You can make a loopy base for your tree with wire [rather tricky !] or insert your tree trunk in play dough/clay  like I have done here.

Beaded Christmas Tree 

The base of my beaded tree is a plastic play dough container which I dressed up with washi tape, lace and rhinestones.To cover up the play dough I poured a generous amount of white glue over it and covered it with pearls.Can you see the "snow" on the rim of my tree base?

Beaded Christmas tree

Threaded a flower head and a red bead on a pin head and looped them on my beaded tree.I don't know if they look like cherries or Christmas tree ornaments!

Beaded Christmas tree

Die cut 2 stars from silver glittery foam and stuck a loop of  wire between them.Twisted the star atop the beaded Christmas tree.

DIY Beaded Tree

Click here for the full view and details  of the snowy Christmas Diorama I used the beaded trees on .

Beaded tree tutorial 

These easy to make Trees would look fabulous as home decor and if you sell your crafts  I bet these would be a big hit [but caution you need to pack them well and maybe use thicker wire otherwise the branches can get squished!]
Do tell me how this simple tutorial was.
Supplies :Beads, Wire , wire cutter,head pins, flower caps,pearls,Rhinestones-Itsy Bitsy.

Edited : This beaded tree tutorial was featured at Totally Tutorials!


This beaded tree also got Top honor at Decorate to Celebrate Christmas tree theme