Wednesday, April 30, 2008

paper beads

My lanyard for my school ID broke last week so I decided to make one with paper beads. I did this craft when I was like 15 or so. A couple of years ago, I saw a Martha Stewart craft kit in the scrapbook section at Michaels so I figured I could do it with scrapbook paper that I didn't want in my scrapbooks.So I didn't like this paper, but thought that the small amount of edge that would show, would still make a nice bead color.


Start at one end, mark off 1 inch, then continue going across the entire page (there'll be a mark at 1", 2", 3", 4", 5", etc.). On the opposite side, start at the 1/2 inch mark, and mark every inch so that you have a mark at 1/2", 1.5" 2.5", 3.5" etc. Then draw a line from one side to the other, making triangles. (see above picture)


Cut them apart (it was pretty quick work using my Creative Memories trimmer since it's longer than 12" where as my Fiskars trimmer is exactly 12". Because I was cutting on an angle, I needed the extra distance).


Roll the bead tightly and apply glue to the end. The picture above shows you how it looks when it is loosely rolled and not yet glued. The one below, is glued so it won't unroll.
And here is the finished necklace. I think this is going to be repeated one day with different color papers. I may also try making some of them shorter by making them only 1/2" wide and cutting the paper in half so the triangles are shorter. It'll slightly change the shape of the beads and make a pattern for the necklace with long and short beads.

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