DIY Halloween Chandelier

Hey everyone! I am so excited to be guest posting on The Crafting Chicks blog! I am Briana, I work as the graphic designer for Roberts Crafts, which has been the most perfectly dangerous job for an avid crafter/scrapbooker/beader like myself. 😉 But I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect job for me!

On to the project – the DIY Halloween Chandelier!

This will be the first Halloween that I’ve spent in my own apartment with my kids, and I am SO excited to decorate! I wanted to create something unique and different, so I went walking through the American Fork Roberts location to see what I could come up with. I keep seeing so many blog posts about the many fun uses of spray paint, and I’ve been wanting to try a project with it. I grew up hearing from my dad that spray paint is BAD! (With a capitol B that rhymes with P that stands for. . . I’m going to have that song stuck in my head now.) Now, as an adult I’m realizing that he was referring to using spray paint to paint a car. A far cry from what I’m about to do. (And I’ve seen first hand what a spray painted car looks like, and my dad is absolutely correct.) This DIY Halloween Chandelier is awesome!

So here’s what I found at the store to start with:

Get 3 different sizes. Large, medium and small. Spray paint with a matte black.

Now for my favorite part! BEADS!! I found strands of beads in orange and black. These are a combination of Blue Moon™ and Darice™ beads. My favorite tools to use for beading are pictured below.

For the bottom layer I strung orange and black beads onto beading wire. The theme of this project is “keep it random!” So anything goes! The more ecclectic, the better. All my strands are between 2″ and 3″ inches, finished. Cut the wire about 1/2″ to 1″ longer than what you want to end up with, to allow for wrapping.

The first step is to take your rounded needle nose pliers, clamp onto the end of the beading wire and wrap the tail of the wire around the pliers to create a loop. This will be the end, that will keep the beads from sliding off. Then string the wire through the beads. Use a mix of the orange and black, do monotone strands of all black and all orange. Once you have all the beads you want on your strand, clamp the rounded needle nose pliers about 1/8″ away from the top bead. Wrap the wire around the pliers, and then wrap it around the wire itself, creating what looks like a hangman’s knot. Cut off any excess wire. (Tip: You know those REALLY cute necklaces that you see everywhere these days, made with a long chain that has charms hanging down at the center from a large lobster claw? This is how those dangling charms are made. Attach a few of them to a jump ring, attach that to the chain, stick on a giant lobster claw and you have yourself a beautiful necklace!)

Once you have as many strands of beads as you want, tie a thin green ribbon to the smallest wire frame. Make a knot in the center of the strand of ribbon. Thread the ribbon through the top loop in your bead strand. Tie a bow with the ends of the ribbon. Apply a drop of Bead Fix or super glue to the center of the bow, to ensure it doesn’t untie. Do this for all the strands of beads you have, randomly around the wire frame.

This is what it will look like, once it’s turned right side up:

The next layer of the chandelier is pretty simple. Get LOTS of ribbon. Orange, black, purple, green. It can be plain, sheer, patterned, etc. I used ribbon from the Cosmo Cricket™ Halloween line, and also solid, sheer and polka dotted ribbons from the seasonal/floral department of the store. Cut the ribbon into strips. The length of the ribbon depends on how long you want it to be on the ends. I cut my ribbon in 8″-10″ lengths. Simply wrap it around the medium sized wire frame and tie in a knot. Mix it up! (You could also do this to have a fun wreath, using any kind of ribbon for different holidays or seasons.)

Now, for the large wire frame. I had been wondering what I could possibly do for a third tier when I found these twigs in the dried floral section and it was like those moments on tv, where the protagonist has that “Aha!” moment and you hear a chorus sing in the background and a bright light shines down on the newly enlightened person. I have those moments in craft stores! These must have just come in, because I think I would have noticed them before. For sure! They are PERFECT for any Halloween project.

See what I mean? They come in a bundle, and you get a bunch of them. Take them home, love them, cherish them and then for this project, break them into smaller sections. With your bare hands. Do it. 🙂 They’ll splinter on the ends, but I think that just adds to the overall project. Break them into 12″-18″ pieces. (I did have to use my knees for the bending in half of them. And then scissors, once the initial break was made. These things are TOUGH!) Tie them to the large wire frame with either fishing wire or clear nylon beading cord, which we carry in the beading section. I used the 30lb cord. Take 2 or 3 pieces and tie them on, overlapping and crossing over each gouping of twigs. Once you’ve gone all the way around the wire frame, you can insert pieces here and there, until you get the desired look you’re going for. Take cheesecloth and spray paint it with the black. It’s ok if there are spots of white still showing. Tear it into strips and dip into Mod Podge®. (Warning: This WILL be messy. But it takes me back to elementary. Just have a juice box and some Goldfish with ya, and you’re set!) You could also do things like sprinkle on glitter or attach little spiders. (I have a SERIOUS aversion to spiders, so I opted to not do that one. lol)

For the last step, take someblack bead chain. You’ll need 4 sections for each tier of the chandelier. The length of each section of chain will depend on how much space you want in between the tiers. Attach the end loops of the chain to the wire frame. Using leather cord, tie 4 lengths to the top tier of the chandelier. Loop through a split steel ring (found in the bead section in the findings) and tie a few knots to secure it. (Second image above.) And vîola! You have a fun chandelier for Halloween!

I hope you enjoyed this project! Have SO much fun putting your own twist and style to it! 😀