This beaded garland is even more ghoulish with ghost tassels attached!
As I made this year’s Halloween decor DIY plan, I knew I needed to work in beaded ghost tassel garland. I’m addicted to yarn tassels with beads so this is the perfect adaptation for Halloween. If you’re also a fan, be sure to check out the boho tassel garland post featuring the garland that my daughter and I created for her dorm room.
Supplies:
- White yarn
- Black paper
- Bag of colored beads from Dollar Tree
- Glue dots (or glue)
- Scotch Tape
- Scissors
- Template to wrap yarn around – I used a DVD case.
Sort beads.
The Dollar Tree bag of beads contains orange, black, red, green, pink, and yellow beads. Sort the beads, combining the orange and black in a bowl, the red and green beads in a bowl, and the pink and yellow beads in a bowl. For this project you’ll only use the orange and black beads. I’m saving the others for a Christmas DIY project and an Easter DIY project.
Steps for making ghost tassel garland are below.
Cut and prepare a strands of yarn.
You need to cut three strands of yarn.
The first stand of yarn is the one that that will hold your tassels and beads so you’ll want to figure out the desired garland length and cut the yarn to the appropriate length. For my care package garland, I only needed 13″ of yarn. Be sure to plan about an extra inch because you’ll need to cut the end that has the Scotch tape attached for threading.
The second strand of yarn will tie your tassel onto the one above. To determine the length of this yarn strand you need to know how long this ghost will hang from your garland. 12″ is a great length to work with if you’re unsure. You can cut off the excess.
Your third strand of yarn will be used to wrap around your tassel to make the top section of the tassel. You’ll need about 13″ for the third strand.
Thread yarn with wood beads.
Wrap a small piece of Scotch tape around one end of the yarn that will hold the tassels and beads so that you’ll be able to stick the yarn through the beads.
Since my garland for this project is short, I used eight beads, 4 black and 4 orange. Alternate the beads onto the garland.
Hang string of beads.
If you’re hanging the garland on the wall or on a fire place mantel, consider using Command strips. I love to use these for tassel garland or other holiday decor that is only going to be up temporarily.
For the project I’m showing in this post, i’m attaching the garland to my care package lid. So I attached the bead garland onto the lid using glue dots.
How to make the tassels for your ghost tassel garland
Locate an item to use as a template.
The template you use to wrap your yarn around will determine the length of your tassels. Decided how long you’d like your tassels to be and select an item that length that you can wrap the yarn around.
I’m using a DVD case for this project. When I made my boho tassel garland I wanted to make long tassels so I used the short end of a clip board, which is much longer than the DVD case.
Wrap yarn around the template.
The more times you wrap yarn around the template, the fuller your tassel will be. For this project, I wrapped the yarn around the DVD case 25 times. For other projects, where I wanted extremely full tassels, I wrapped the yarn around the template about 25 times.
Be careful to not to wrap the yarn too tightly or it will be difficult to remove from the template.
Tie the tassel.
While the wrapped yarn is still on the template, thread the piece of yarn that was cut in the step above under the yarn that is wrapped around the template.
Tightly tie a double knot.
Remove the yarn from the template.
Slide the yarn off of the template.
Keep your hand in the loops so that you will be able to find the middle of the tassel.
Cut the tassle yarn.
Holding the string you tied onto the tassle, place a cut in the bottom of the tassel.
Wrap a piece of yarn around your tassel.
Wrap the 13″ piece of yarn that you cut around the tassel at that spot. I typically wrap it around about 5 times and then I tie a double knot.
Trim the yarn after tying the knot and tuck the knot into the yarn that you wrapped around the tassel so that it isn’t visible.
If you need additional help making the tassels, please take a look at my DIY bead and ghost yarn Tassel video that I created for this project (shown below).
Tie tassels (ghosts) onto the garland.
Split the beads, leaving space between each set of two beads. This is where you’ll hang the ghost tassels.
Place ghosts on the string of yarn between the beads. For this project, I place a ghost between each set of beads.
Trim the tassels to even them up.
Add ghost eyes to the white yarn tassels.
You can cut circles out of black card stock and adhere them onto the tassels. I used glue dots to avoid a glue mess, but glue would certainly work as well.
These ghost tassels are so cute!!
Once the ghost tassels are tied onto the string with the beads, your ghost tassel garland is complete!
See this project on my YouTube video below:
Check out my other Halloween and Fall posts below:
