Paper beads

I have seen paper beads before but never tried to make them. Today my dear friend Judy taught a mini class to a group of us and we had a wonderful time making paper beads. 

What you need to make the beads:

• strips of text weight paper 11 inches or longer cut in rectangles or long triangles
• Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents adhesive
• skewer or toothpicks
• box or plastic container to use for skewer to dry beads
• black marker or Krylon leafing pen (Optional)

I made a video to show how to make the beads. This is my first demo video and I have to say there's room for improvement. Sorry if the video gets a bit out of focus, hope I'll get better.

The process of making these beads is very easy and extremely relaxing. I would say if you have any decorative paper that is fibrous, it would be great to make beads. 

When you make your first few beads you can start with catalogs. My favorite is Paper Source because they are brightly colored and the paper is mat finish text weight, perfect for the beads.  Hope you give it a try!

Here's a time lapse making a bead:

Washi tape

As if art supplies are not addictive enough, now we have another item to obsess over.  Washi tape!!  I've been collecting it faster than I use it.

The collection began innocently enough, and now it's exploded.  I'm sharing some pictures of my stash, please don't judge my hoard.

Tim Holtz has a line he refers to as tissue tape, which is light and paper-like with the vintage theme.  Much like fun duct tape manufacturers are catching on selling lines in office supply stores like Staples and Office Depot. I've given rolls to my nephews in hopes they will use it in their smash books. One of their favorites is the caution tape and one that looks like tire tread.

A fun version I picked up at Paper Source is color your own washi tape. It is black and white design with room to color.  So I decided to try it out.  Since the washi tape has a slick surface I used Sharpie markers to do my coloring.  I have a huge collection and I had a blast decorating an envelope that I included with a friend's birthday gift. You need to enjoy coloring if you decide to use this tape.  

My only comment is that there are some tiny little spaces to color, so don't plan on using a very large piece unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

Also, the most recent addition to my collection is the Jane Davenport tapes I picked up at Michael's.  They were on sale and I adore them.  Particular favorite is the small roll that says "I'm learning to fly."

Finally, for the Christmas cards I delivered to neighbors I chose to dress up the naked envelopes with some tape from Paper Source. The tape is translucent, so the white of the envelopes just makes the tape pop even more.