Project: Paper beads

I came across two in-depth how-to's today for creating beads out of paper. The author of both tutorials, going by the name Crimefish on Deviantart, is an extremely talented artist. Her highly detailed pencil drawings are amazing to behold.

I would suggest this project for older kids, as it requires fine motor skills, lots of scissor usage and using nail polish as a varnish. My sisters and I greatly enjoyed making paper beads when we were kids. The way we made them was with one long triangle shape of paper. We just used glue and no varnish, which is why our beads probably fell apart so easily.

In the first, Paper Picture Bead Tutorial, you cut out colored paper to decorate beads made from printer paper.
The second, Paper Bead Bracelet Tutorial, shows you how to make colorful charms from magazine pages, and how to make a bracelet with the beads.

If your kids love making these, there are innumerable variations out there, just Google "Paper beads." You can also have a stockpile of beads to pull out when your kids are bored or want to do a fun activity with friends. We just kept our extras in an old plastic ice cream bucket.