Scandi inspired Hama bead battery candle holders

After making my Autumn Hama bead battery tea light holders, I decided to make a Christmas version! These Hama bead designs are based on the red and white colours of many Scandinavian inspired Christmas decorations that have been very popular for the last few years.

Please note that these Hama bead candle holders are designed to be used only with battery tea light candles - they would not be at all safe if used with real candles!

To make this Hama bead project you just need red and white Hama beads, a large square pegboard and some thick red thread or embroidery silk for sewing up the side. First come up with your designs. They should be the entire length of the square pegboard, and I've found that a height between 8 and 10 beads works well. For a wider candle you will need to attach two boards together. These are my patterns:

Then iron your designs. Use the iron on a medium setting and iron until the beads are well fused together, but there are still holes in the centres. Iron all the designs first on one side, then remove the strips of beads from the pegboard.

Taking each strip one at a time, iron again on the reverse. Then while it is still warm and malleable, wrap it around a cardboard tube and hold in place for a minute or two while the beads cool. When you remove it from the tube it will hold its curved shape.

Use some red thread to sew the strip together at the back, using a thick needle to push through the centre of the beads. Sewn up fairly tightly it was the perfect size for my battery tea light holders, but you might want to check at this point to make sure that your candle will fit inside.

And there you have it, three Scandi inspired Hama bead candle holders!

With a small battery tea light candle inside they are perfect for popping on the mantlepiece or under the Christmas tree. They are so simple to make that children could easily make a couple for Christmas gifts, and even a very young child would be able to copy a simple design or come up with one of their own.

If you like this design you might also like my Scandi inspired Hama bead Christmas baubles.

I also designed this Scandi style Hama bead mat pattern for a coaster to hold my daily hot chocolate.