Paper Beads Made From Cat Litter Bag

Posted on Feb 16, 2010 in How-To's / Tutorials | 5 comments

Paper beads can be made not just from news paper, magazines and catalogs but also wrappings and bags from things we use at home like cat litter bags.  There might me some hesitation for some of you to try to cut your own paper beads thinking that you would have to measure everything  to be exact and proportioned.  While some of us might want to measure our triangle paper to be an exact triangle,  I think it is more fun to just cut your strips of triangles randomly or free form style.  I love the idea of “freeforming” (if there is such a word everything); embroidery, knitting, crochet……

You will need a yard stick, or a really long measuring stick, cutting mat and a cutter.  It is a challenge for me to take pictures of each step, so here’s video.

Here’s the strips of paper that we have cut from the cat litter bag.  If you want your beads to be round and of uniformed shape then I suggest that you measure them.

What to do next?  The fun part!  Rolling them into paper beads.  I used the metal paper bead roller and coated it with diamond glaze.

Here’s another video demonstration.

I did a few of them and part of the fun is finding out how they turned out.  I will be able to make so many beads from just that one cat litter bag.  I love the color of these beads, don’t you?

The Square Knot With Hemp and Paper Beads

Posted on Feb 15, 2010 in Paper Bead Creations | 2 comments

There is a renewed interest in hemp, and I had to dig up my book on hemp and bead jewelry.  The square knot is the most basic macrame knots.  The hemp necklace with paper beads is meant to be worn high up on the neck as a choker.  I made this necklace with small round beads and a bigger round bead in the center of the flower.

I have found a site that has good visuals on the basic square knots, you can find it here.

For this project, you need one 2 1/2 yards of hemp (your knotting cords) the size that would fit the hole of your bead, and a shorter one about 24 inches (your filler cord or your middle cord).

With the working cord tie and overhand knot and form a loop that is big enough for your closure knot.

With the filler cord take about 5 inches and fold it forming a loop and hold it against the working cords with the loop.

You take the short end of the filler cord and start wrapping it around all the cords.

You will pull the cords to close the loop on the filler cords until you have one that looks like this.

You will then tape it down to a table so you can start braiding (just like braiding hair) the first 3 inches of the necklace.

You start your square knot ending  with the filler cord (shorter cord) in the middle, so that you have two long cords on your left and on your right.  You would alternate between the left and the right cords with this pattern:  L cord over filler cord and under R cord, take R cord over L cord and under filler cord, then pull tight.

And then, you do the same thing, with the R cord over the filler cord, then take the L cord over the R cord and under the filler cord then pull tight.  You will alternate doing this with the left and right cords and you will end up with the square knots.

I added a paper bead every 5 or 6 square knots.

After three paper beads and when you are at the center of your necklace, I added three paper beads on both the right and left strings and in the center I added a tiny paper bead, a large round bead and a tiny paper bead.

And then, you continue and finish the other side, ending with two knots (one knot over the other) as your button closure.

Here’s your finished paper bead necklace!

A DIY Post Card Swap

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 in Events and Experiences | 8 comments

I participated a postcard swap put together by Hanna of ihanna’s blog.  I am not much of an artist but wanted to take on the challenge, it happens to be one of my New Year’s Resolution for 2010 – learn something new and fearless crafting.  It is good sometimes to leave your comfort zone and try something different.  After all we are a community of crafters who embraces each others uniqueness.  I must admit, I had some difficulty which brought on another resolve – take an art class or something.   It is a Valentine’s Day theme and in that spirit, I am sharing it here with you.  I love fairy tales, prince charmings,  castles…….who doesn’t right?  The collages on these post card are from an old children’s book which I also collect.  On each card I wrote a quotation from Marcel Proust ” Happiness is beneficial to the body, but it is grief that develops the power of the mind.”  How true is that?  I also believed that the holes in our hearts can be healed by believing in magic and always maintain an attitude which is that of a child.

Paper Beads Hemp Jewelry

Posted on Feb 12, 2010 in How-To's / Tutorials | 3 comments

I had to see the movie Avatar, just to look at the nature inspired jewelry worn by the characters in the movie.  I searched on etsy and true enough, there is a lot of  the Avatar movie inspired necklaces that came up and hemp is the stringing material mostly used to give it that organic look.  I wanted to practice the macrame technique on hemp before making our own version of the Avatar necklace.  Kayla, came up with this macrame necklace with our large round paper beads. I took a step by step photo of her doing it, if you need a more detailed instruction you can find it here.

You take Four Strands of Hemp (small size), the two inner strands (base strands) a little over  the length of your necklace or bracelet, and the two outer strands would be five times the length of your inner strands.  You would then tie a know to a jump ring and tape it onto a surface.  When you are more familiar with the pattern you can just hold the strands in you hand.

Put the right strand over the base strands and under the left strand.

Fold the left strand over the base strands and under the right strand.

Then put the right strand under the base strands and over the left strand, then pull into a knotl.

You get the twisted pattern by repeating the same pattern over and over again.  You will then insert your paper bead in the two middle strands.

Just repeat the same knot until you get your desire length.  The paper beads are perfect for this because they have big holes enough to accommodate the two strands of hemp.

Here’s your finished necklace

The bracelet was made with one big round paper bead and smaller round paper beads around it.  Both necklace and bracelet are finished off with magnetic clasp.

Glass Heart Paper Bead Necklace

Posted on Feb 11, 2010 in Paper Bead Creations | 1 comment

I’m very pleased with the outcome of this Valentine’s Day worthy paper bead necklace. I used the same rosary loop technique in connecting the beads together.  I think it look very much like vintage.  I used the larger round paper beads and matched it with with copper eye pins.

For a how to video on rosary loops please look it up from our earlier post.