Pony Bead Fun

I've been having the kids help me here and there through this last week of ornaments, but today's feature is all Louie & J.! I bought this ridiculously huge tub of pony beads for a Thanksgiving project...but aren't they pretty???

Right here and now I am going to confess my love for http://familyfun.go.com/ and also their print magazine, Family Fun. I've gotten SO many ideas from them. All their projects are simple to follow, not very expensive and my kids ENJOY doing them. And this is where I got the fantastic idea to use up some of our excessive pony beads.

This ornament required pony beads and pipe cleaners. And two little men who had no trouble putting off bedtime to help Mom in her quest of ornaments!

I gave them each a bowl of beads and two pipe cleaners and told them to string on the beads. When they were finished I made a circle out of each pipe cleaner and then connected the circles by wrapping the ends around each other. They ended up looking like this!

I'm VERY happy with how they turned out! Who thought pony beads could look so elegant? Well...maybe not elegant...but festive, at least! And with the bend-ability of pipe cleaners...you can make trees, stars, candy canes, icicles...whatever you want!!!