Wooden Bead & Hearts Banner

I am still loving the look of natural wood, and big chunky beads. I wanted to incorporate this look into my Valentine decor, so I made my own wooden bead and heart banner.

Don’t you just love it? I want to leave it up all year ’round!

Supplies needed to make your own wood bead & heart banner:

• Natural Wooden Round Beads (3 packages – I used 25mm)
• Simple Heart Cutout Wood Shape (11)
• Jump Rings-Round Assorted-Silver
• Jute Cord
• Darice Pink Blast Matte Acrylic Paint
• Darice Bright Red Matte Acrylic Paint
• 150-Grit Fine Sandpaper Pack

Begin by painting your wooden hearts. I used 11 for my heart banner.

You do not have to do a super great job on the painting, since you will be sanding them later. I did paint both sides, because depending on where I hang mine, both sides might be visible at some point.

Let the paint dry.

In the meantime, figure out how long you want your banner to be. Mine is going to hang (for now) on an antique cupboard in my kitchen, so I measured the span of the cupboard accordingly. That is what I love about DIY projects- you can customize them to fit your needs.

Trim jute to the size you would like. Give yourself a few inches of excess.

When the hearts are dry, hit them with some sandpaper, distressing the edges.

Create a hole in the top right of the hearts. I used a Crop-o-dile for this part. It cuts right through thin wood like butter.

I used the punched hole as a template for my other wooden hearts so they would all hang consistently.

Just stack two hearts and use a pencil to mark the next hole.

Set the hearts aside.

Take a small piece of masking tape and wrap one end of your jute to make it easier to string your wooden beads. Tie a knot in the opposite side, make sure to leave 2-3 inches of excess jute.

Start stringing those beads!

I used three packages of beads for my banner.

Don’t string them too tightly, leave a little bit of space between the beads.

Open the large jump rings sideways, and slip it through your wooden hearts.

Attach the heart to the wooden bead strand, alternating colors. I chose to hang a heart every 4 beads.

Knot both sides of the jute with some excess on both sides.

Then using additional jute- we will be making tassels to finish off the ends.

Wrap jute around your hand- I used 12 loops.

Slip the jute off your hand, holding the shape of the loops. Tie off one end using additional jute.

Cut the opposite end of the loops.

Trim the ends so they are even. Tie the tassel to the ends of the bead banner, and trim any excess jute.

I like to secure any knots in the jute and tassels with a little bit of glue to prevent unraveling.

That’s it! Good job!

Find a place for your cute new bead & heart banner, and stand back and BE PROUD OF YOUR WORK!