7714. Make a paper bead bracelet

 Scrolling through Pinterest, I saw that you can make beads out of paper. It looked interesting and easy enough that I saved several examples to my crafting board and promptly forgot about them... like usual. When Kaukauna Library offered a paper beads as one of their Make and Mingle Events, I was like sign me up.

Paper beads are fairly easy to make if you are not in a hurry. When you want to rush they do not turn out as good.

Materials

• Paper -- just any paper will work. We used old magazines. You want to make sure there is a lot of color and not a lot of words. Pick a color palette and stick with it.
• Scissors
• Glue -- we used regular Elmer's School Glue. You could also use a glue stick if that is more your thing.
• Toothpicks and something to stick your toothpicks in. We used form blocks. 
• Bracelet string or wire

Steps

1. Cut your paper into tapered strips about 1/2 to an ich wide. You want one end to make a point. There are various ways to cut if you are talented or want to be fancy but they all end with a tapered point. Mine were more triangle shaped.

2. Once you have at least 16-20 strips of paper, you can start making beads. To start place the fat end of your paper strip on a toothpick and begin to roll it around the toothpick.

3. As you roll apply glue so it the strip sticks to itself. You do not want to glue the strip to the toothpick otherwise you will never get the toothpick off.

4. Stick the toothpick in the form to let dry. It will dry quickly (10-15 minutes)

5. Repeat step 2-4 until you have enough beads to make a bracelet.

6. Once you have all your beads made, string them on your bracelet. We used a stretchy bracelet cord so we just tied square knots to finish it off. 

I was told thicker paper like scrapbook paper isn't as easy to use. Comics and magazines work great. Try to make your strips all the same width or your beads won't be the same width.

Like I said it was an easy craft and not really too time consuming. It is something you can do while watching TV. Even older kids can handle making them. The hardest part is starting the bead on the toothpick. 

Would I make them again? Maybe. I would need the right opportunity. I am not one to sit and do crafts so I would really need a reason to make them again.