Happy holidays, friends! Yesterday, while resting in my family room and watching a movie, I put together a small DIY illuminated wood bead garland. Making garlands while relaxing by a fire over the holidays is a favorite activity of mine.

I produced a paper leaf garland last year, a gemstone garland the year before, and a sparkle confetti garland the year before that. This year, I made a straightforward beaded garland by fusing wood beads with copper LED lights.

Many retailers that sell Christmas décor include copper wire LED string lights, but I just $10 for my remote control battery operated strand on Amazon. Many different kinds of wood beads are available at craft stores like Michaels, but I got my 9/16 oval beads online. I suppose you could make this with just two bags of 100 oval beads because I bought three bags of 100 but had a lot of extras. Alternately, mixing up the sizes of the beads would be fun. All you really need is a light string and some wood beads.

The copper wire and the miniature light may easily pass over the aperture of the beads. Four beads at a time were strung after the entire strand was unwound.

Simply build a T shape out of the copper at each light as you make the garland to expose the tiny light while stabilizing the beads and prevent them from swaying up and down.

It doesn’t take long to make; I finished the project in around 90 minutes, which is the ideal amount of time to watch a movie. 🙂

My light strand came with a little controller that, when used, modifies how the lights blink.

Use a large circle punch to make sparkling circles out of metallic foil paper if you want to add a little more glitz. Create a smaller hole with a standard hole punch, then cut a side opening with scissors (like a door hanger), and attach them to the illuminated bead garland.