beads, beads, beads

We’ve been making beads over here. Not that its been all at once. Just a little bit at a time.  About a week or so ago we started making recycled newspaper beads. It took several days to make it, basically because it was just perfect to do a little bit a day without getting bored.

First what we did was soak old packing paper. We still have a ton & I used that instead of newspaper.  The instructions said to soak for 1 hour, but because the packing paper is a bit stronger we ended up soaking a day, drained the water and then smothered with homemade glue.

: Easy Cornstarch Glue :
boil 3/4 c. of water
separately combine 1T of cornstarch to 1/4 c. of cold water until its dissolved
Mix cold and hot together until it thickens.

We then rolled it into little balls like this: After we rolled them and let them set for another day or so. Camille sanded the sharp points (which were very few) and painted her favorite ones: We then drilled holes in them. 
She used acrylic paints for these and we finished them with a clear acrylic gloss to give it a nice shine:
My favorite part was watching her bead using a large needle. She hadn’t used one before, and because this needle was so large it isn’t as sharp as smaller ones. She did awesome. She asked to make a necklace with these & this is how it turned out!
After we were done with that she asked if she could use the needle on her other beads, so the next day we pulled the beads that she’s wet felted and she tried her needle with those: She ended up perfect amount to make a little bracelet. 

Tagged as: child craft, DIY handmade, reusing