Paper bead papers – oh my goodness, I LOVE this method of creating my own unique papers.
My paper bead papers may seem kind of ‘busy’ when you use the method in my latest YouTube video, but don’t worry.
The paper beads you’ll make from them look fantastic.
The busier you make your A4 painted paper bead papers, the better the outcome when you make your beads.
In all the years I have been making paper beads, I have used many different kinds of paper.
If you want to create beautiful, arty papers with an abstract look, paint your own paper bead papers!
Papers for beads can be anything from junk mail, flyers, magazines, gift wrap – any kind of paper you have.
But my absolute favourite papers are those I create myself.
It’s probably because I am an abstract artist and am always playing with different paints.
I just love painting, so creating these papers gives me a reason to splash colour around.
If I am creating hand-painted papers for collage or paper beads, I feel free to play.
So I have portfolios full of paintings that can be used to make paper beads or to use in collage.
These latest ones that I did for my YouTube video were some I created to make myself some stacking bracelets.
But instead of using paint, I returned to my favourite way of dyeing paper – alcohol inks.
Alcohol inks are brilliant for creating arty craft papers because they dye the paper right through.
That means you don’t get white edges when you cut your strips.
Anyone who watches my videos regularly will know I am a fanatic about colouring the cut edges!
The thing is, if you don’t run a Sharpie along them, you end up with a white spiral running around your rolled bead.
If you dye your paper with alcohol ink, you don’t need to do that and it saves time.
It can be pretty tedious having to colour the side edge of every strip.
You also don’t need to colour the first inch of the strip to colour the core hole.
Perhaps not everyone minds but I can’t stand seeing white inside the core hole of a paper bead!
And so I always colour the inside of the strip at the wide end before I start rolling.
It does make your beads look more professional if you pay attention to the small details like that.
Same with snipping the corners at the wide end before you roll – it just makes for a tidier looking bead.
Using alcohol inks to make paper bead papers gives you a rich looking, arty finish.
And if you follow all the steps I outline in my video, you will have beautiful soft papers like no other.
My papers feel and act like fabric by the time I’ve done with them.
When I start out with applying the inks, my main goal is to keep the drops of colour small.
Tiny areas of colour are the key to papers that translate into colourful beads.
When I design papers that are going to be for making beads, my aim is always to make them bright and busy.
By busy, I mean getting lots of colour variations in each square inch.
So I use small drips of ink instead of big ones.
That way, you can have lots of colour changes across small areas.
My hand-coloured paper bead papers often don’t look that great when looked at as whole A4 sheets.
It’s only when I start cutting them up that you can see the method in my madness.
If you paint or drip broad areas of colour on a piece of A4 copy paper, it may look really pretty – until you cut it up.
Then you see your individual strips have no details, no colour variations and the beads turn out quite boring.
So when you are painting or dyeing paper to create bead strips, you have to paint tiny.
Forget about how busy or unattractive it looks as an A4 painting because that’s not what you are creating.
You are making arty, abstract paper beads, so the busier the A4 design, the more detailed your finished beads will be.
Watch the video and you will see what I mean.
As I said, there are several steps in this process to get your lovely unique, tactile paper bead papers.
So make sure you watch it all – don’t miss any steps.
Please have a go at this technique – it’s fun and you can use the papers in any paper craft.
I’ve been using this technique to create journal cover papers for years and also for collage papers too.
But if you can’t paint or dye your own papers at home for any reason, there are three free printables you can use.
I will put the link to the free designs in the heading of the final paragraph of this post.
Please look carefully for that and make sure you get the link to my Google Drive where I store all my free printables.
I never charge for my designs they are FREE.
So if you follow a link on here and you are asked for payment – it’s the wrong link.
Occasionally, someone will say, in the YouTube comments, ‘oh, her designs are not free’ and when I investigate, it’s because they didn’t follow my link.
So make sure you go to the heading if the final paragraph for my free printable link.
Ok – that’s about it I think.
Oh yes, if you want one of my easy to draw paper bead strip templates, click here to go to my etsy shop.
And you can find many products like I use in my videos by visiting my Amazon store fronts.
You can read my Amazon Affiliate statement here.
If you want to ask any questions, leave a comment under the video over on YouTube.
You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
And here is the final paragraph with THE LINK TO MY FREE PRINTABLES
There are more free printables over on my free printables page.
Please read my Terms & Conditions of downloading and using them – thank you.
Thanks for reading this post and I’ll be back soon with more free designs for you.