Experimenting with Making Paper Beads -- Crafty Sunday

 

This weekend begins my spring break. I finally get to rest for a couple of weeks. We really don't have much planned as Hazel still has dance classes and her college classes this week. I just know I need down time desperately. As I have been trying to give myself time to craft more since it relaxes me, I have been doing a bit of paper quilling. Paper beads have a similar technique as paper quilling. I made paper beads a few years ago out of wrapping paper. 

At some point I decided my original necklace was too long and I took some beads out to shorten it. My mother also gave me this paper bead necklace below. I love it.

I wanted to try to make paper beads in the shape like this necklace. I decided to look for different templates and ways to make paper beads. I found some great printables and tutorials at Fun Crafts to Do at Home. I printed out one of the templates and tried rolling it both ways.

I also downloaded and printed the round bead template from Fun Crafts to Do at Home. I experimented with different ways to make them.

For paper I am using a 2017 Paper Source Calendar. I did try one bead using three quilling paper strips of different sizes but the same color. I glued them end to end together. I got the basic shape I wanted. 

I used a paper rotary cutter to cut the strips. Since the widest strip was about half an inch and the narrowest was one-eighth of an inch I tried to cut a strip that went from one half to one-eighth. I found it wasn't wide enough to be round. So I made one strip one-half to one-quarter and another one-quarter to one-eighth. I found this to be what I liked best. I did try one with three strips but didn't like how it went together.

I decided to try making beads from one of the calendar pages. I picked a white backgrounded flower page. I made over thirty beads. The necklace my mom gave me has thirty beads with some seed beads between the paper beads. After rolling each bead I sprayed them with Mod Podge. I discovered a spray version.

You can see how the paper looks and how the beads came out. The print on the page doesn't matter too much since just bits of the colors show on the beads.

I will be stringing them with some beads between them. My next page that I want to try is this one.

Stay tuned for some finished jewelry!! I love that you can use any paper to make the beads. It is a great craft for recycling!