Berry Fun With Beads: Making Awesome Accessories

Do you ever find a craft supply that just gives you endless inspiration?  I LOVE when that happens - it totally gives your creativity some freedom & is so much fun too.  Today's post is all about my latest supply crush: wooden berry beads.

When my lovely sponsor Wholeport asked me to pick out some new goodies to try I was all about these berry babies.  With 50 beads in a bag, and in all sorts of colors, I didn't have to limit myself on what to make, so I went a little berry accessory crazy.



I started with some ribbon wrapped hair clips.  The little miss finally has enough hair to clip things onto, so I've become a bit obsessed with making these lately.   I hot glued green grosgrain ribbon around some alligator clips, added a strip of foamy drawer liner (to make them non-slip) and then added a single bead on each.

For more decoration, I used some fabulous 1.5 inch strawberry print ribbon from Make The World Prettier and fashioned up some bows and dolled up the centers with a berry bead.  I'm trying out different barrette styles so I sewed one on a French clip barrette and hot glued the other on a ribbon lined alligator.

Then I made this rainbow berry necklace for a little extra fun & color.  The 80's child in me is still so in love with anything rainbow-related, so it totally makes me smile:

Making it was so easy I don't even need to show you step-by-step pics.  I simply arranged the berries in rainbow order and threaded them on some elastic thread, using small green glass beads as spacers.  It'll fit me as a choker style or my little miss as a looser necklace. I cannot wait to wear it with a plain white top in the sunny days of summer!



I also whipped up some simple snap clip barrettes with the pink & magenta berries.  Since both the bead backs & barrettes are really smooth, and there's a bit of stress from the snapping these get, the hot glue didn't hold too well at first.  Then I got smart & glued tiny squares of grosgrain ribbon to the clips first and then glued the beads on top so there'd be a little texture for the glue to grip.  They seem to work better now, but if push comes to shove I can use some heavy duty thread through the holes & stitch 'em together.



My 3 year old went wild when she saw them all.  And I'm not ashamed to say that even though I'm over 30, I plan to rock all these accessories myself.  Why should the little miss have all the berry fun?  I'm a little on the quirky side and never clued into what's "stylish" anyway.  And since accessories like these are so low commitment why not take a chance? I've still got quite a few beads left so I think some DIY earrings may be next on the agenda;)

And in case you're interested, you can use these codes at Wholeport for discounts on any kinds of crafting supplies (including these fabulous beads!):

Code: WP50MINUS5 to Get $5 OFF a $50 Wholeport order 

 Code: WPUNION100C10N2 to Get $10 OFF a $100 Wholeport order 

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!

I was not financially compensated for this post and received the beads to review.  I am an affiliate of Wholeport.com.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience. For my complete disclosure policy, click here.