Paper Beads

 

Two different ways of using paper beads on greetings cards

If you want coordinating beads for a project then why not make your own out of paper. I made some straight beads to create a frame for the fox picture greeting card and then made more traditional paper bead shaped beads to embellish the Happy Birthday greeting card.

You can experiment with different thicknesses of paper but the best to use is the sort of paper you use in a printer. The paper I used for the fox card was a little thick and I had a little difficulty in rolling it - although with perseverance it was still doable. You can also experiment with the width and length of strips you use to make the beads - the wider the strip the longer your bead will be and the longer the strip of paper you use, the thicker your bead will be.

Rather than use them on your greetings cards, you can turn them into a bracelet or necklace by threading them onto elastic. You can also coat them with a varnish to make them glossy and a little more hard wearing.

Follow the below link to find out how the beads and cards were made

For the fox card you will need

• 12 . 5 inch square white base card
• Green foliage print paper (I used some from a scrapbooking pad called Nature at Heart by Craft Sensations)
• White card
• Brown or wood grained paper (I used a sheet from Wood Textures DSP by Stampin Up)
• Little Fawn and Friends stamp set by Craft Consortium
• Black ink pad
• Colouring medium of your choice (I use Promarker pens ivory, blush, spice and marsh green)
• Two rectangle dies, one measuring 8 . 5 cm by 5 cm and the other measuring 6 . 5 cm by 3 cm
• Thin dowel or knitting needle (I used a 2 1/4 mm knitting needle)
• Needle and thread
• Sponge pad
• Happy Birthday die, stamp or peel off
• Sellotape
• Glue and double sided foam pads

1. Cut a 12 inch square from the foliage patterned card


2. Stamp the fox image using black ink onto white card. Colour it in and use the larger rectangle die to cut it out
   
   
   


3. Glue the fox image to the foliage square in the top half
   
   
   


4. Cut two pieces of woodgrain or brown paper to 8 . 5 cm wide by 7 . 5cm long.


5. Wrap them around a pen to curl the paper - this just helps for when you need to wrap it tightly around something smaller
   
   
   


6. Take one of the rectangles of woodgrain paper and start to wrap it tightly around the knitting needle or thin dowel. Put a strip of glue every so often to hold it. When you get tot he end of the strip of paper put some glue and finish wrapping it. Slide it off the needle
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


7. Repeat step 6 with the other strip of woodgrain paper - these will form the top and bottom pieces to frame the fox rectangle


8. Now cut two strips from woodgrain paper measuring 6 . 5 cm wide by 7 . 5 cm long. Wrap these as per steps 5 and 6. These will be the side parts to frame the fox
   
   
   


9. Place the foliage square onto a sponge pad and using a needle, punch a hole from front to back about 5mm above the top left corner of the fox rectangle.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. Use a needle to make a hole 5mm to the left of the top left corner of the fox rectangle
    
    
    


11. Make further holes to the bottom left corner of the fox rectangle 5mm out to the left and 5mm below


12. Do the same to the right hand side of the fox rectangle - make holes 5mm out to the right at the corners and 5mm above and below the corners


13. You will now have 8 holes 5mm outside the image at the corners

    

    The red dots show where the needle holes should be

    
    
    
    
14. Thread a needle with some thread and Sellotape the end of the thread to the back of the green foliage square. Push the needle through the top left hole and pull the thread through until it stops.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


15. Thread one of the longer wood grained beads onto the needle and then put the needle through the opposite corner hole
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


16. Carry on going anti-clockwise bringing the needle out of a next hole, threading on the corresponding size bead and then taking the thread to the back by going down the next hole along until all beads are attached and creating a frame for the fox. To ensure my beads did not come loose, I went around the frame again - basically double sewing on the beads
    
    
    
    
    
    


17. Ensure the thread ends up on the back of the work and tape it down with some more Sellotape
    
    
    


18. Glue the foliage rectangle centrally to your base card. This will hide all of the thread and Sellotape


19. Die cut Happy Birthday from wood grained patterned card and stick it to a rectangle of white card cut using the smaller rectangle die
    
    
    


20. Attach the greeting rectangle to the bottom right of your base card using double sided foam pads
    
    
    

To make the shaped beads in the second card:

1. On the back of a piece of A4 patterned paper put some pencil markings as follows: along the top long edge, mark at 1 . 5 cm, then every 3 cm. Along the bottom long edge mark at every 3 cm. (This will make beads that are 3 cm wide - to change the size of the beads, just adjust your pencil markings - the first mark on the top long line will be half the size of the bead you require then all the other markings will be the size you require. eg the little red beads from the second card are only 1 cm in length, so my first pencil marking along the top long edge would be 0 . 5 cm and all the others would be at 1 cm)
   
   
   


2. You have a couple of options for cutting out the beads:


• Pencil, ruler and scissors - draw a straight line between the bottom lefthand corner and the first top mark (1 . 5 cm). Then draw a line joining the first top mark (1 . 5 cm) with the first bottom mark at 3 cm. This will create a triangle shape. Draw a straight line between the bottom first mark with the top second mark - keep zig zagging across the page joining up the next marks. Cut out with scissors. The very first triangle needs to be discarded as shown in the below photo
  
  
  


• guillotine - line the first top pencil mark ( 1 . 5 cm) with the bottom left hand corner with the cutting line on your guillotine and cut it. Discard the first piece cut off as it is not needed. Now cut between the 1 . 5 cm mark with the first 3 cm mark on the bottom. This triangle will form your first bead. Now cut between the bottom corner with the first 3 cm mark along the top. Keep going like this and you will get lots of triangles for beads
  
  
  

  

  discard this first triangle

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


3. Follow a similar procedure to rolling the straight beads - but this time start with the widest end and try and keep the point of the triangle central so your finished bead will be roundest in the centre and not off to one side. Keep adding glue along the triangle to hold it together.
   
   
   

   

   Start rolling the paper at the wide end

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

For the second card, I made three 3 cm beads using the same paper I used to create a backing rectangle. I then made three 1 cm red beads. I die cut a 'Happy Birthday' greeting and used double sided foam pads to attach it to the centre of the backing rectangle on a DL card.

I created 3 holes in the top left hand part of the base card in a horizontal line. I got some red thread and threaded up a red bead. I then threaded both ends of the thread through the centre of the patterned bead and through one of the holes in the top left hand side of the card. I did the same with the other two sets of beads. I used Sellotape to secure the ends of the threads on the inside of the card.

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