Making Your Own Custom Designs With Paper Beads
Creating your own accessory can look difficult but making your own creations with paper beads are one of the easiest way of doing crafting. With just your own imagination, there is no limit to the kinds of creations you can make with paper bead designs. There are lots of papers that can be used. They can be made from simple recycled old newspapers or magazines, to old notes from your notebook to gift wrapping papers and so much more. When making paper bead creations, one only needs a bit of passion to make it the craft you want possible. Just like any type of hobby, people only needs a bit of self-motivation and the rest of their creative energies will simply run through. Crafting paper beads can be wonderful if the materials used are old but if you want to make your own using relatively fresh materials, one can soak them in coffee or tea for a few hours to get the retro look they want.
To start with your own paper bead project, one needs to prepare materials and tools in order to begin making them. Of course, initially, you would want to prepare select paper which are usually six to eight inches in length. Smaller scraps of paper will also be necessary. Crafting tools need are scissors, brushes, straws, wax paper, tape, wire, small ribbons, sparkles, varnish, mat gel, hot glue gun and embroidery thread.
The basic method of making paper beads is using a cut strip of paper with one and a half inches wide bottom with tapering point at the other end. You can cut as many small strips as you want depending on what kind of bead you are making. When it comes to thick paper, the strips used should be shorter. Taking the wider end, you begin by rolling them towards the other end and then dabbing it with a little bit of hot glue. The uneven ends can be cut or left alone depending on your preferences. After that, you can then throw in smaller strips around the center of the bead including texts and other contrasting colors. Vary all the widths and shapes to make them more interesting. The beads will then be placed on a sheet of wax paper.
Once it is done, you can then start having fun with the design. Put a bit of glue or mat gel in the bead’s center. Put an embroidery thread or a small ribbon and wrap then around the beads as much as you want but don’t wrap them too much since it will end up looking too bulky. Put gel medium and then place on the areas of the bead where you want to place the decorative glass beads, distressing powders and the embossing powder. Apply the embellishments with hot glue or mat gel.
You can finish covering the bead with a topcoat of varnish. Placing the bead on a skewer or straw, you can apply the varnish on the entirety of the bead. You can either use mat or glossy varnish depending on how much shiny or rough you want the beads to be.