Tutorial: Basics on making paper beads

Yay! I've finally finished prepping, taking pictures, and put it all together and therefore can post my tutorial now!

I will show you the basics of making 5 of my favorite bead shapes.

The first is my generic oval(ish) shape, i've already posted pictures of these - the blue ones, and how they look on a bracelet. So here we go!

Step 1) Measure out and draw lines on piece of paper (I used newspaper)

'

From left to right, 1/2" bottom x3, 1", 1/2", 3/4"

On the top I measured 1/8" from the side (will be discarded), the smallest ones are 1/4"

then 1" and 1/2"

Step 2) Cut it all out! So just follow the lines, and cut out the strips, it'll basically look like this

They are all mixed up here..didn't think of putting them

in order really!

Now that everything is cut out and prepped you need to get some glue, and something long and thin, I use those plastic coffee stirrers that I cut in half down the middle.

TO ASSEMBLE!

Starting with my generic "oval" shape

Take one of the pieces that have a 1/2" base and 1/4" top (seen on the left of first picture)

So you have to put glue on it, but start from about an inch from the end so that it doesn't stick to the coffee stirrer.

See? Glue about one inch from the end!

Then you have to roll the un-glued end on the coffee stirrer

I find to get the tightest roll, it's easiest to leave a bit of an overhang

And then you roll it up! Make sure it's tight and doesn't slide around

it'll make the rest of the process a lot easier

At this point you can just roll it all the way to the end of the piece of paper and make sure to secure it with glue

If you keep it pretty straight, it will look like this, make sure to glue the end down

don't worry about making it perfect!

Once you get to the end of that first one, you start with the second piece with a base of 1/4" and that ends in a point, roll that up and you'll be done!

Rolling the second piece

Done!

So the technique is always the same no matter the shape but I will give some more examples just to PROVE to you that I'm not lying!

So this is probably the easiest one to make, it's just 1/2" on each end

and rolled straight..simple, done!

This is a cone one (made from the right angle triangle strip of paper)

It's a subtle cone but if you made the triangle longer it will be more defined

This is probably one of my favorites because it's just SUPER funky

It's made with the piece of paper that has the two pointy peaks

Might as well show a picture! This is the one that makes the bead that looks like

one of those sand timer things...can't think of the real name!

The last step for all of the beads is to VARNISH!!!!

I use mod podge, the glossy one and just lather it on each bead, this is why it's good to have the beads on those coffee stirrers. You can leave them on, put some mod podge and let it sit on a bowl or dish so that the beads do not touch anything.

I usually put two coats of mod podge and one coat of nail lacquer.

I feel like at this point they are hard enough to use. Although with any bead that is thinner, I suggest an extra layer of each!

Tad um!

*Any other varnish can be used if you don't have the ones I mentioned

Oh and another *

**If you leave the side of the paper with the pen lines you will see the lines in the finished bead ( see my other post on blue newspaper beads. The ones that I made in this post have the lines on the bottom side so you don't see them that much.

I think that's it!

Enjoy experimenting with paper beads!

Buh byeee!