Bead Color Ideas: Blue Christmas

A beader can never have too many ideas for holiday color palettes, so I’m going back to bead trios for this month’s round up of palette possibilities. But, since it’s only November, I thought we’d go a little light and do things with a twist. The challenge: to create three-color palettes with blue instead of green, which look totally festive and not fourth-of-July. It was trickier than it sounds!

I started with an easy blue, and one that reminds me of classic outdoor Christmas lights. After choosing some delicious cobalt white hearts, I naturally went for some ruby red ones in size 4/0. The boldness of the transparent glass is enhanced by the white cores, which have their own festive vibe. To give Feliz Navidad a dash of cheer, I topped things off with a hint of antique gold Swarovski Elements pearls.

Sugar Plum Fairy started with some pretty aqua lined peanut seed beads. I paired these with more peanuts in pink, creating a palette like a non-traditional - though totally trendy - department store tree display. Just imagine a silvery artificial spruce with vintage style glass ornaments. All this palette needed was a dash of snow, played by opaque crystal AB seed beads.

For the final trio, I chose some intense blue tagua slices. These immediately had me thinking of holiday postcards from tropical locales - the kind with palm trees decked out in Christmas attire. Soft white mother of pearl chips seemed like the perfect frosting, and ruby AB druks add a hint of Christmas punch to Coconut Snow Cone.

Do you have a favorite decoration in non-traditional colors?

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