DIY Beaded Tassel Grinch Ornaments
These cute beaded Christmas ornaments are easy to make and feature a fun Grinch bead, perfect for a Grinch-themed tree. This craft is perfect for kids and can even be used as a Christmas keychain!
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This is the first craft project in a new series I want to do: DIY Grinch ornaments!
Have you seen those adorable Grinch trees that look just like a Whoville Christmas tree with the whimsical curved top? How fun would it be to make a whole Grinch-themed tree with a bunch of matching DIY ornaments? Well, I’m here to inspire you with all the Grinch ideas this holiday season.
This Grinch ornament is made with wood beads and silicone Grinch beads, plus an easy DIY tassel to make them a little fancier. This is an easy craft project that even kids will love, and the ornament can even be used as a keychain or decoration for a wrapped gift if you want. This can easily be customized to fit any other theme or holiday, too, by simply swapping out the paint colors and Grinch bead!
Get all the details and how-to below!
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What you need to make beaded Grinch ornaments
- wood beads: The large beads came from Hobby Lobby in their holiday craft section, the small beads are from Dollar Tree. This assorted set of wood beads is another great option.
- craft paint and brushes
- thin string for threading/hanging (I used red crochet thread), plus yarn or crochet thread for tassels (you can ignore the off-white string pictured above–I realized later it was too thick for this craft)
- these Grinch beads (if those aren’t available, try this set or search for “silicone Grinch beads”)
- a threader like this: So crucial! Makes threading the beads way easier.
- regular jewelry beads: I made one ornament with regular beads just for fun so you can see the difference, but also I recommend a couple jewelry beads that have smaller holes for the ends, that way your knots don’t have to be as big to hold the wood beads on. This Christmas bead set would be fun for these ornaments!
How to make beaded Grinch ornaments
Paint wood beads
Paint the wood beads so you have an assortment of red, green, and lime green beads. I’m sure there are better ways to paint beads without making a mess, but I simply held them at the holes and painted around them. Paint all the same color at once, clean your hands, then paint the next color.
Once you’ve done all the colors, go back and paint a second coat on everything for better coverage and check for any missed spots.
Next, you can add polka dots or stripes on some of the larger beads. For the polka dots, I used the back end of a paint brush dipped in some paint and made dots. For the stripes, a tiny brush will be your friend–but don’t worry if the lines aren’t perfectly straight!
I skipped this step, but if you want to, you can coat your painted beads (once completely dry) with an acrylic sealer. Sealing them adds a little extra protection as well as a smoother finish (you can find matte and glossy sealers, just depends on the look you want). I’ve used Aleene’s matte sealer in the spray can and had good results. I also really like Liquitex varnish if you want higher quality (the spray has a stronger smell, so I prefer the liquid kind you can brush on).
Thread beads onto string
For these beaded ornaments, I found it easiest to double up the string, tying a loop on one end for a hanger and a knot on the opposite end to hold the beads on. So cut a length of string about twice the length of your beads, plus extra for the loop. You’ll also want to include twice the length you want your tassel to be later (if you want a tassel). If you’re not sure on length, add a little extra and you can always trim it at the end! I cut roughly where my scissors are in this image:
Side note: If you’re going to be making a tassel, I recommend making this main string the same color as your tassel (red worked great for my red tassel, but my lime green crochet thread was otherwise occupied in a half-done crocheted baby burp cloth, so you see a small red knot at the top of the green tassel).
Fold your string in half. On the folded end, wrap the string around itself to form a loop and a knot*. Knot it again in the same spot to increase the size of the knot (so the beads won’t slide off).
*If you’re not sure how to make this knot, I believe it’s called an overhand loop knot so you could look up tutorials for that.
This loop forms the hanger at the top of the ornament, so make it large enough that it can easily slide over a tree branch.
Now you can start threading beads onto the string. A needle threader makes this part much easier, especially since we’ll be threading both strands through each bead. First, thread the ends of the string through the loop of the needle threader, like this:
Now push the end of the needle threader through a bead, pulling it out the other side and pulling the thread through with it.
Push the bead fully onto the string. Repeat with remaining beads. I mentioned this above, but just as a reminder, you will most likely want to use a non-wood bead for the first and last beads–something with a smaller hole so your beads won’t slip past the knots. Also, make sure any directional beads (like the Grinch bead) are facing the right way!
Tie a double (or triple) knot at the end of the string. If you’re struggling getting the knot close enough to your beads to keep them tight, you can use my favorite sewing trick: tie the knot a little loosely to start, then slip a needle inside the knot before tightening it, using the needle to push the knot closer to the beads.
You can trim the string if you’re not going to be making a tassel, but if you are making one, leave the ends of the string long!
Make a tassel
A tassel is optional, but I think it is the perfect finishing touch on these beaded Grinch ornaments!
Cut a bunch of strands of yarn/crochet thread that are twice the length you want your finished tassel to be. You can either cut them individually, or you can wrap your yarn/thread around something multiple times and cut all the strands at once to give you equally-sized pieces. I used a stitch plate from my sewing machine that happened to be on my craft table at the time and was the right width–a scrap piece of cardstock or cardboard (that’s as wide as you want the length of your tassel to be) would work just as well.
Hold all the strands together and place over one of the ends of the ornament string and tie the ornament string around the strands, knotting it. If your ornament strings are long enough, they will just become part of the tassel strands, so don’t trim them yet.
Fold the tassel strands down (in half), so all the ends are pointing down.
Cut an additional length of string (a little longer than twice the length of the tassel) and wrap it around the tassel strands close to the top and tie a knot. Again, this strand will also become part of the tassel so don’t trim it yet.
My knotted strand didn’t want to lie flat, so I used my needle threader to thread the sticking-up end of it through the tassel so it would be on the inside–much smoother. It’s a little hard to tell what I’m doing, but in the images below, I stuck the end of the needle threader through the hole/loop of the tassel, then threaded the sticking-up string through the needle threader’s loop, then pulled both through the opposite side of the tassel. (This totally isn’t necessary if you’re still confused what I did!)
Now that your tassel is tied off, you can line the ends up and trim them to be even.
I love my classic sewing scissors for precise cuts! (I know, I know…these name-brand scissors are an investment, but if you treat them right, they last forever! I’ve had mine for over 20 years.)
And you’re all done! Look how cute this simple DIY ornament turned out:
Here’s another visual for how to make a tassel, this time of me making the green yarn tassel:
You can see that I simply trimmed the red ornament strands after knotting around the tassel yarn since they were different colors and I didn’t want two random red strands in my tassel. Also, my yarn was from the end of a small skein so it was a little more wavy than I would have liked. Oh well. Maybe I’ll risk it and see if I can “iron” the strands with my Cricut EasyPress Mini (on low!) without them melting. 😜
DIY Grinch ornaments with beads
I hope you have fun making this easy Grinch ornament craft! Stay tuned for more DIY Grinch ornament ideas!
Don’t forget to pin and save for later!
