Simple Hama bead snowflakes for Christmas

I know it's been ages since I shared a new Hama bead craft on my blog, so this week I've been working on some Hama bead snowflakes! They are a great way to add a bit of homemade craftiness to your Christmas decor.

The designs for these snowflakes are mainly based on the snowflake pattern that I came up with for my Hama bead snowflake bunting many years ago. I used designs which are created on the hexagon shaped pegboard. I also experimented with some smaller designs. The hexagon pegboard works really well as it easily divides into six sections, so you can just start by placing beads in the centre, head out towards the corners, and see what you end up with! 

When it comes to ironing the Hama beads, for this particular craft it is especially important to make sure that you iron the beads until they are well fused, and to iron them on both sides. Even though some areas are only one bead wide, as long as they have been well ironed then they will be sturdy enough to stand up to being used in your Christmas decor.

If you are new to crafting with Hama beads then you might find this post helpful - Ironing tips for Hama beads. 

This craft was a bit of a de-stashing exercise for me - I've been lucky enough to hoover up lots of Hama bead collections from friends and family which has left me with small numbers of beads across a huge range of colours. So I mixed in some of the pale blue, transparent and glitter blue beads to add some interest to my Hama bead snowflake collection!

I don't have a final home for these snowflakes yet, but it would be easy to add some festive cord or ribbon so that they can be used as ornaments on the Christmas tree.

I can also imagine them hanging from lengths of cotton in a window or over an unused fireplace. They could be attached to gifts, or enclosed with Christmas cards.

These Hama bead snowflakes were so fun and simple to make, and I loved coming up with different ways to place the beads in order to create new designs.

If you are looking for more snowflake crafts then you might also enjoy these:

Mini Hama bead snowflake embellishments

Free simple cross stitch snowflake designs

Snowflake cross stitch embroidery frame design

Cross stitch felt snowflake bunting

Lollipop stick and button snowflakes

You can also see some of my favourite Hama bead Christmas crafts.

Hama bead snowflakes using the midi beads

A couple of years ago I designed some free simple cross stitch snowflake designs and patterns which I used to make a snowflake embroidery hoop piece. I also adapted the pattern so that it could be used for Hama beads, and I used the mini Hama bead snowflake embellishments to decorate a pretty winter snowflake lantern.

This year I thought I'd have a go at making some Hama bead snowflakes using the larger midi beads. As a reminder here's my Hama bead snowflake pattern - it is made using white beads for the snowflake and then transparent beads in the gaps so that the snowflakes can be easily ironed.

The Hama bead snowflakes made with the midi beads measure about 5-6cm in diameter and are very sturdy. 

These snowflakes make great Christmas decorations. I can see them hanging from the ceiling or in a window, or simply stuck across a window with a glue dot.

Because of the hole in the bead they could also be hung with ribbon for a tree ornament, they could be glued to a name card for the Christmas dining table, they could be used as gift tags or to decorate a gift bag, they could be popped inside a Christmas card for a festive surprise. 

They are so simple to make that it would be a great craft to keep children occupied over the Christmas holidays and of course there's no need to stick to white, you could use beads of any colour, maybe glittery beads or in contrasting colours.

Have fun with your Christmas crafting!

Cross stitch felt snowflake bunting

Recently I shared my free pattern for some cross stitch snowflakes, and today I'm sharing a project that I made using some of these designs - some felt and cross stitch snowflake bunting.

For this project I used some green felt from my stash, but I think that it would also look really good with red felt. In fact there are all sorts of different colour schemes that you could use! My circles measure approximately 6cm across. For each bauble you need to cut out a complete circle, a circular frame with the same diameter, and a circle of cross stitch fabric which is slightly smaller in diameter. I used 14 count Aida fabric for my snowflakes.

Stitch a snowflake into the centre of each piece of cross stitch fabric. Make sure that the snowflake is centred by folding the fabric slightly to find the middle. 

Then place the cross stitch fabric between the felt front and back pieces and stitch around the outside. I used a blanket stitch as I like how it looks, you can find an easy blanket stitch tutorial here (video).

I made eight cross stitch circles in total. Then I used some silver ribbon from my stash to turn them into bunting. The ribbon is sewn across the back of the circles - I tried several different ways of attaching the ribbon until I found one that I liked the look of!

I've hung the bunting above my fireplace for now but when the rest of the Christmas decorations come out I will probably move it to my bookshelves as it's quite light and delicate and will get lost amongst my Christmas fireplace décor!

You can find the cross stitch pattern for the snowflakes here - Free simple cross stitch snowflake designs and patterns.

This cross stitch snowflake craft is one of several projects that I've made using my free snowflake designs. You might also like to have a go at my cross stitch snowflake embroidery hoop which is a simple yet effective Christmas craft.

Snowflake cross stitch embroidery hoop design - free pattern

I recently shared my simple snowflake cross stitch designs, and today I'm sharing a larger free snowflake cross stitch design. This circular design fits perfectly into a 6" embroidery hoop for display, and it makes a lovely festive decoration for your home this Christmas.

I stitched this design using white embroidery thread on navy blue 14 count Aida fabric. The design measures 67 x 67 stitches. Because the pattern uses just the one colour it is very quick and easy to stitch. I think that it would also look great on fabric in a different colour - perhaps green or red - or if stitched with metallic threads. 

Click here to download the pattern below as a .pdf - Snowflake Embroidery Hoop Pattern

This was a really satisfying make as it stitched up so quickly, especially because no colour changes are needed and there are no fancy stitches or backstitch! The only thing to watch is if you are using dark thread on white Aida, because if you carry the thread across the back then it might show through.

I used a plain wooden embroidery hoop for my design, but to make it a little more festive I used a few coats of silver acrylic paint to cover it which worked really well. A gold or white frame would also look good - there are so many different colour combinations that you could come up with.

Happy crafting!