Made It By Monday: Paper Beads

There are some crafts you can never be too old for. I hadn’t made paper beads since summmer camp days but I’ve stumbled upon so many tutorials and earrings and bracelets all about (and using) paper beads.

What you need:
1. Old magazines, scrapbook paper, origami paper, whatever!
2. Glue (Elmers liquid glue, glue stick – whatever works best for you)
3. Toothpicks, Size 1-3 knitting needle, chopsticks
4. A varnish (Such a krylon, polyurethane, modge podge)

I have yet to varnish mine. The varnish isn’t entirely necessary – it definitely makes the beads look more jewelry-esque but they also lose a bit of the “paper” look.

I made a bunch of these over the course of the last week. (Personally I think my form still needs a bit of work). To get you started, here are a couple of great tutorials for paper beads:

Madmim’s Paper Bead Tutorial
Yahoo Lifestyle Tutorial
Paper Bead Templates (7 different forms! Not just cylinders.)

And once you’ve made your beads, I highly suggest you check out this tutorial also by madmim for anthropologie-inspired earrings: Click here

Make these beautiful earrings from anthropologie.

It’s amazing what people have done! I often head on over to Etsy for even more inspiration.

Image Source

Have fun!

Kusudama Flowers and Paper Cranes

This Tuesday is the birthday of a good friend of mine from school. If there was anyone that ever appreciated handmade goods, it’s her. That and how nice she is in general was all the reason I needed to spend some time on this very pretty (albeit a little different) paper flower.

Down the street from my school is the art store Blick, which I had never been in before. I usually only go into craft stores that supply a large variety of yarn, which this store does not. I couldn’t have been more wrong about how I much I would like this store. I LOVE it! They have the nicest, best craft supplies at SUPER reasonable prices. Plus, I get a student discount. I got almost 100 sheets of origami paper for under $7.00.

I can’t wait to use the rest of this paper, though I’m not sure yet what I want to do with it. Suggestions would be awesome.

I came across a tutorial online for a Kusudama by Folding Trees. I thought it looked so beautiful and would look great hanging in her dorm room.

I takes 60 pieces of paper so I cut each origami square into four smaller squares. Each square makes on petal and there are five petals per flower. I was worried it would be tedious but it actually became a very relaxing thing to do. I used double sided tape (I didn’t have a glue and it was way too cold to go back out and buy some) to paste all the petal and all the flowers together.

It really ended up being awesome and the colors go really well together. I chained a piece of white yarn (I wish I had brought my fishing wire to school with me) and glued it between the halves so that she could hang it if she wants. I think it will look really cute.

I had a lot of fun making this and a lot of paper left over. With the scraps from the pieces I cut up I made a bunch of little paper cranes. I definitely want to bring my fishing wire back with me so I can string them over my bed in the dorm.

Happy crafting!

Jenny