I just spent the most amazing vacation in Alabama visiting my daughter's sweet little family! My daughter's husband is a drill sergeant at Fort Benning, and they moved to Alabama with their toddler last year. You may remember that my daughter and her baby lived with us while her husband was in Afghanistan a couple of years ago.
Joy of joys, I discovered that two and one-half year old Summer Rose likes to make things! We spent a lovely morning stringing wooden beads into bracelets (and rainbows and ponies)! She also spent an evening"helping" me roll paper beads.
I was having craft withdrawals one day, so I grabbed one of my daughter's old magazines and started cutting it up. The cover of an old HGTV magazine was a tri-fold, with lots of pretty yellows and pinks that I thought would make great beads.
I didn't have anything to coat the beads with, so my daughter loaned me her clear nail polish -- I think it worked great, even though it doesn't smooth the surface of the bead or add dimension and depth the way some products do. Anyway, my crafting philosophy has always been to make do with what you have available.
We used a technique that incorporates gold sharpies, to make the beads look like glass lampwork beads.
Alas, these beautiful beads met with disaster, when we put the necklace on Summer Rose, and kind of forgot about it until later, when she leaned over the tub to swish the water around when her bath was filling!
Joy of joys, I discovered that two and one-half year old Summer Rose likes to make things! We spent a lovely morning stringing wooden beads into bracelets (and rainbows and ponies)! She also spent an evening"helping" me roll paper beads.
I was having craft withdrawals one day, so I grabbed one of my daughter's old magazines and started cutting it up. The cover of an old HGTV magazine was a tri-fold, with lots of pretty yellows and pinks that I thought would make great beads.
I didn't have anything to coat the beads with, so my daughter loaned me her clear nail polish -- I think it worked great, even though it doesn't smooth the surface of the bead or add dimension and depth the way some products do. Anyway, my crafting philosophy has always been to make do with what you have available.
We used a technique that incorporates gold sharpies, to make the beads look like glass lampwork beads.
Alas, these beautiful beads met with disaster, when we put the necklace on Summer Rose, and kind of forgot about it until later, when she leaned over the tub to swish the water around when her bath was filling!
The lesson learned here is: Stay out of the tub when you're wearing paper jewelry.
Do you make paper beads? Do you have a favorite technique or tool that you use?