"A blog dedicated to the art of making paper beads & paper bead jewelry...by Janice Mae"
Make a Paper Bead Book Mark
I had fun making these book marks with paper beads. They are so inexpensive yet a nice, thoughtful gift for any one. These bookmarks are available in gold, copper and black oxide and can be purchase from our online shop.
You can also hang charms and different beads and crystals.
The small round paper beads work well with projects such as this.
Paper Bead and Coffee Bean Necklace
I was quite productive in terms of making paper bead jewelry over the summer. I want to share some unique pieces I made, mixing them with pearls and unusual beads. This particular necklace is two strands, the paper beads are earthy, brown color which was just perfect for the coffee bean shaped beads that I have.
The pendant is blister pearl with an unusual shape.
I love telling my friends that they’re paper and see their surprise. They always think that they’re pearls or wood beads.
Crocheted Filigree Hoops
The other thing I am most passionate about aside from paper bead making is crochet. I learned to crochet just from watching my aunts do it every single day when I was six years old. I collect old crochet books and old patterns. Recently, I discovered wire crochet and has been doing a lot of jewelry with wire. This is a big hoop, but then I love my jewelry to be big and bold.
Here’s Kayla trying it on. I think it looks good specially if you have long hair.
Paper Bead Pet Collars
For all you Animal Lovers out there, I have come up with a quick and easy project, which might just be for you… and your pet!
These are my two babies, yes I know, they are Kitties 🙂
Phoenix-Taloose is two years old. He is a short haired, well-rounded orange tabby, weighing in at a strapping fifteen pounds. He has the most adorable and loving personality, that will just warm your heart. He is defiantly the laziest out of the two… by far, however he is the best pillow in the whole house! Chai-Bella is only a year. She is a cute, very petite grey and white pharaoh cat, with beautiful exotic stripes and spots. Chai on the other hand is a little rascal. I am convinced it is due to her wild cat instincts. We rescued her when she was just about four weeks old. Her eyes had barely opened and she was learning how to move and walk around. She had to be bottle fed.
I always try to come up with unique and creative ideas, especially when it comes to Paper Beads. I love working with these beads because they are so colorful and ethnic, and not to mention they’re recycled, which totally fits into the whole “Go Green” craze that is in right now. So the other day I came up with this really cute idea of pet collars. They’re both super quick and easy to make, therefore anyone can make them for their much loved, spoiled pets.
I went to my local pet store, where I purchased plain, inexpensive pet collars. Since I was making collars for my kitties I chose the kind that snap on and off since they’re safer (i.e Safe Cat). I measure the diameter of my cat’s neck and adjusted the collar to fit perfect, I then simply sewed smaller sized paper beads, side by side along the band of the collar & WHALAH! I had a cute, trendy, earth friendly pet collar!
Now if you chose a collar with a bigger band width, you could decide to use a bigger shape Paper Bead. You can also add accent beads; it all depends on the look you are looking for, but whatever you choose I am sure your pet will LOVE it and so will you!
How to Measure and Cut Paper Beads
I was asked by one reader if there is a template for measuring and cutting paper for paper bead making. I guess there is, but that would limit the size in terms of length of your strip of paper. The longer paper strip will make a more round and thicker bead. Here is a tutorial on how to cut the paper for paper bead making. I showed it here in a piece of regular printing paper so you can see the marks I made. You can apply this principle to longer paper.
You need to mark the top part and bottom edges of your paper to your desired size of your beads. In this case I marked the 1/4 inch for a smaller bead.
I would then take my ruler, to trace the dots and connect them forming a triangular shape. Tip: If you want a longer paper you just need to use two sheets or two magazine pages glued together and use the yard stick instead of just regular ruler.
It should look like this.
You can then cut it into strips by using a craft knife or scissors. Below are cut up magazines ready for rolling into paper beads.
Now you’re ready to make some beautiful paper beads. So, go ahead check out your mailbox for those glossy holiday catalogues they’re sending out this year and turn them into beautiful wearable art.
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