This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! I have another holiday decor project to share with you today, this time featuring some darling new dies from the Simon Says Stamp DieCember release! (Check out the full DieCember release HERE!) I love finding ways to incorporate my papercrafting items into customizable home decor, and these sweet little bird and snowflake dies were perfect to create this kitschy and fun beaded garland. I saw a video on Instagram of a woman who used square beads from the dollar store to create a neat garland with pre-cut holiday foam shapes. The foam shapes were, let’s be honest, not the best, but I knew that I could take it one step further with some beautiful and intricate dies to create this sweet garland. Let’s get started with the details!
*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
To create my garland, I began by die cutting the new Flourish Snowflake and Flourish Bird dies several times. I used White 130 lb stock to add some heft and sturdiness to the birds; I sandwiched one square bead between each bird, adhering them with hot glue and ensuring that the hole in the center of the bead was facing the same direction for both beads. You can see this detailed in the photo below:
I also tied several fluffy bows using some red and white ribbon that I had in my stash from several years ago. I sometimes get overwhelmed when perusing my craft stash, but this project is a reminder of why sometimes it’s good to keep things even if you don’t have an immediate use for them! After I had tied the fluffy bows, I used the hot glue gun to add some more of the square beads to the back to allow for easy stringing.
I also die cut several birds and snowflakes from Rich Red Metallic cardstock and some white holographic mirror cardstock that I found in my stash. These coated cardstocks pick up the flourish details beautifully on both dies! I also die cut the wings for the birds from red glitter cardstock to add some extra holiday shimmer.
After I had adhered the decorative layers to the snowflake and bird “beads” I added lots of Pawsitively Dazzling Gems in Cherry & Opal to the flourish accents to add even more festive shimmer!
I strung all of the completed beads on a length of twine, adding plain round wooden beads between to create space and complete the pattern! Doesn’t it look so pretty on my office Christmas tree?
I had a few leftover metallic snowflake die cuts, so I thought I would turn them into shaped tags!
To create these shaped, folded tags, I folded over some scrap cardstock into a small card, then used the solid shadow die on it’s own, making sure to overlap the folded edge of the card base with the edge of the die when running it through my die cutting machine.
After I had created the tag base, I adhered the full metallic snowflake to the front, then used my hole punch to add a 1/8″ hole. I strengthened the hole with a die cut created using the Holes and Reinforcers dies, then threaded a loop of Iridescent White Cord through the hole to make for easy attachment to the gift!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! I am so excited to try this technique of creating “beads” with paper die cuts to create fun garlands for home decor. I can’t wait to share more with you! Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy holidays!
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