Making a Bead Necklace out of Wrapping Paper


Bead Necklace

This is an easy and fun craft project that you can do together with your kids. The next time you receive gifts, make sure you save up the wrapping paper.

Steps

  1. Choose a big piece of old wrapping paper with small designs and details. The more colourful the wrapping paper, the more interesting your necklace will be. Alternatively, you can also use several different types of wrapping paper but make sure that their colours compliment each other. You can also choose specific colours and wrapping papers to match a certain festival. For example, red and green for Christmas, or red and blue for the 4th of July.
  2. Once you have your wrapping paper, cut it into strips measuring approximately three to four inches in width. You should now have a few strips, depending on the size of your wrapping paper.
  3. On the back of one of the strips, start marking down intervals of one inch on one side of the length. For the other side, make similar one inch interval markings, but position them so that they are in the centre of the other sides\’ markings and not directly above.
  4. Now, draw lines from one length to the other to join up all the markings. You should have a zig-zag design when you are done.
  5. Stack the strip with the design on top of a few others and cut out the isosceles triangles (isosceles triangles are triangles with two sides of the same length and one of different length). Discard the triangles at the two ends as they are not complete.
  6. Repeat this process until all the strips are cut up.
  7. If you are using more than one wrapping paper, you need not necessarily cut all of them to the same size. This will create beads of different sizes which will add variety to your necklace.
  8. Once you have all your triangles cut out, start rolling your triangle tightly starting from the 1-inch side. Dot a drop of glue onto the tip of the isosceles before rolling it all the way up. You now have one bead.
  9. Repeat the above step with the rest of the triangles.
  10. For this step, you may need to thread the thread through a needle first. Alternatively, you can also use fishing wire as it is able to keep its form better. Thread the beads in any pattern you want until you have your desired length. Tie the ends up when you are done and you will have a completed bead necklace. You can also make an extra long necklace which you can twist into a double-layered necklace.

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairedancer/296753777/