Alcohol inks - oh my goodness - you know when something really sets you on fire and you don\'t want to sleep?
Well this is it for me! It\'s all Mandy Shedden\'s fault - since I went to visit her fantastic little craft supplies store in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, I have not been the same.
The store, Keep On Crafting is an absolute Aladdin\'s cave of art and craft goodies. I seriously didn\'t know which way to turn.
I tried all sorts of ways but then I found the best way to make saucer beads of all different sizes is to use the layering process.This works best of all for me.
To make the necklace you see above, I used an old 12 x 12 inch sheet of scrapbooking paper I had laying around. I cut it into quarter inch tapered strips and then layered them to get a variety of shapes and sizes.
Saucer beads can be quite tricky to master when first making paper beads. Click To Tweet
I made the one you see to the right here by using an old comic from a batch I bought from an auction house (above).
Add your own abstract artwork - as I have done with the ones pictured above - and you have exciting, bold and beautiful one-off pieces of jewellery to wear, sell sort give away as presents.
These paper pendants were all made by me, using a discarded cereal box to create the jewellery form that I mounted my artwork on.
Fun with art - my three favourite words! As adults, we are easily capable of getting a huge amount of fun out of art and craft - if we allow ourselves. Somehow, somewhere along the road of growing up, we stop \'doing art\' because we can\'t do it \'properly\'. As children, until we reach a certain age, we do not care whether we are \'good\' or \'bad\' at art. If you watch children at play, having fun with art comes naturally. It was through my creative work with children that I began to think about art and craft in a different way. Children simply create and often forget about their \'art\' once the crayons and paints are put away; their joy is in the doing.
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Making paper beads from junk is one of my favourite crafts. I have always loved transforming mundane pieces of paper into beautiful jewellery.
I also love creating my own artwork to use. But my enjoyment was spoilt by not being able to roll the paper bead strips very easily.
I wanted something that gripped the paper well enough to get the bead started easily.
I also wanted something that would allow me to slide the finished bead off quickly, smoothly and without pulling the middle out of it.
There have been many bead rollers for sale for many years but they were made from bamboo that has been split into two and then bound with paper to make a handle.
They were ok and I made quite a few of my own over the years. The problem that I found was the bamboo could sometimes snag the paper making beads hard to slide off.
So I created my own tools.
Once you have the tool and have practiced on a few strips of paper, making beautiful beads is really easy.
Instead, you will be saying thank you for all the wonderful free paper you are getting.
And think of the thrill when you make a really beautiful bracelet out of something that used to annoy you! Make unique presents that have cost you next to nothing.
Click To TweetOr create your own art work and make some really colourful beads that are truly unique and cannot be copied.
The possibilities for creating paper beads of all different shapes and sizes is endless with the paper bead tool.
I really enjoy colouring designs on plain paper and then making beads from it. If you add several coats of glaze, they look so amazing, no one guesses they are made from paper.
For many years I used my drawn out templates with carbon paper because I had no printer or computer in those days.
In recent times, I extended that further to create downloadable templates for sale online that people can print off and stick onto their craft paper with removable glue tape while they cut with a craft knife.
And then I designed a set that can be used with electronic cutters such as Silhouette Cameo.
They are very easy to use. Click here to find out how you can use my templates to cut quick, easy strips and then use the template paper to make more beads so there is no waste! You can also use the templates in image editing software such as Photoshop to overlay onto printable designs.
The one inch electronic template printed onto a design for easy cutting.
There are two ways to use the downloadable templates. You can print the template, fix it to your chosen bead paper with removable adhesive tape and cut your strips along the lines with ruler and craft knife.
The picture to the left shows strips cut with that method. As you can see, this gives you the strips cut in your chosen paper and the left-over template strips. You can hand colour those with Sharpies and make more beads. No waste!
Or you can overlay the png file onto an image on screen (see the blue design above), print it and cut along the printed lines with ruler and craft knife or a guillotine. Visit my etsy shop today to get your downloadable templates.
The bead tool demonstrated in the video is the one that we produced to sell online to be lighter weight and easier for posting all over the world.
There is an updated video here showing the new tools in action.
The original handle we used was bigger and heavier and pushed up postage costs. However, my workshop students who have tried both handle styles over the years preferred the heavier, more curvy handle on the 5mm tool and most people said they found the grip better on the curvier 3mm tool handle.
So we took the decision to sell the online paper bead tools with the old style handle. The straight handle tool is available on request.
You can see the stencil in the picture above. It can be found on Etsy by clicking here.
At the moment, when you buy both the new 3mm and 5mm curvy handled bead tools together, we are giving you the paper bead strip stencil template free at a saving of £5.99.
Click here to go to the offer on Etsy.
We ship all over the world.
If you would like to start using a paper bead tool to make your crafting life easier - order my paper bead tools and templates today - you will be glad you did!
Ever since I discovered the versatility and creativity of using paper to make pretty jewellery pieces, back in the 70s, I have been hooked. Paper bead making is one of my all-time favourite crafts.
Making paper beads has been an obsession of mine for decades but in more recent years, I started sharing my passion with others.
People are always asking me how I make my jewelry and as I have a background in running workshops, I love nothing better than sharing my passion with groups eager to learn.
One such workshop was group of artists who asked me to go along to one of their monthly meet ups and teach them the basics of paper bead making. The workshop was a great success; all the women in the group got hooked after finding how addictive the paper bead making process is.
Many people comment on the paper bead bracelets I wear saying how pretty and unusual they are. When I tell them the bracelets are made from paper they are always shocked. The jewellery I make is created using a variety of techniques and materials.
There is practically nothing in the paper line that I won\'t consider for making my beads. My favourite trick is to go into my local card shop to buy someone a birthday card and then using the bag to make a present.
No, I\'m not mean! I just love making something we usually screw up and throw away, into something beautiful to wear.
The birthday cards from my local shop always come in a pretty paper bag made of very thin but colourful paper. I open the bag out and use it to make paper beads.
One small bag makes enough paper beads to create a double strand bracelet. I add my own tiny gold beads and a charm and it makes a beautiful, unusual gift.
I took one of the paper bags to show them, along with a bracelet I had made from one. They were really surprised at how delicate and pretty it was. The workshop that followed was fun and productive.
I then held a second one for them later in the month so they could complete their projects.
By the end of the second workshop, each person had made their own bracelet. At the start, they had been in awe of my little box full of paper bead jewellery.
They assumed it would be hard to for them to make similar pieces. But once they knew the technique, they were all converts to paper bead making!
When people first see the bracelets I make, their first reaction is \'wow, I couldn\'t do that! How do you make beads like that from paper?\'
But once they understand the process and the possibilities, they are making their own paper beads within the hour and can\'t wait to go off and experiment with their own designs.
There is an infinite variety of designs and shapes you can make in paper beads. The limit is really just your own imagination.
When I first began making my own very crude tools to make paper beads, I used bamboo which I split and bound to create the slot needed to \'trap\' the paper when you wind it.
That worked ok but the beads were not always easy to remove once finished. They would get stuck and pull the centre out of the bead sometimes - very annoying!
So I worked hard to create the perfect paper beading tool to make the process enjoyable instead of frustrating.
I was no stranger to making my own tools and had used wood to create handles for various tools since I was quite young.
Click To TweetI used my paper bead tools for many years, often making them for other people and then selling them to my workshop students.
But once the internet arrived and I became familar with online selling, the world really opened up to me and I began selling my tools online and I branched out into downloadable paper bead strip templates to make life easier for crafters who hated all the measuring and drawing lines.
My bead tools have been through many changes of handles and I have recently come back to one of my original handles which has a gentle curve.
My students tell me they prefer that to the straight handle.
More recently, I have added a paper bead strip stencil to my range of paper bead supplies.
All of my products can be found by clicking here to reach my Etsy shop.
If you visit my channel Rainbow Lane, you can scroll through my videos and find them. You can buy my tools, templates and stencils by visiting my Etsy shop.
And you will soon find that making your own paper bead jewelry with ease.
Compared to many other hobbies, paper bead making can be extremely inexpensive if you use junk mail and scrap paper - so what are you waiting for - jump right in!