Beautiful Beads...

Papertrey Ink now has a fun die called Beautiful Beads, and you can do just what the name implies with this die...make beautiful beads for bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc! I followed Nichole Heady's video from Stamp-a-Faire to make my own beads and bracelet! First, I used the fun die to cut these pieces from the two Beautiful Beads pattern paper. The paper is thin for rolling, so with one swipe of the die cutter, you can easily cut 4 sheets and dozens of triangles at once.

(Not all of the papers are shown here.) 

Following the directions in the video, I rolled the papers up onto a skewer with a simple glue stick! Then the beads are coated with clear nail polish, which really brought out the colors in the papers and made them hard and durable like real beads! They only took a few minutes to dry.

Next, you'll want to gather up a few supplies. I ran to my local craft store and purchased a few things: small crimping pliers, beading wire, toggles for the ends, crimping beads, and a few decorative beads.

My 12 year old helped me make several of the beads, and they didn't turn out perfect, but in the end, it's quite ok. Since they are handmade, one wouldn't expect them to be perfect, right?

The decorative beads I picked out from the store to go with my handmade beads were teal, clear and silver, so I decided to try the blue/green handmade beads on my bracelet. Here is the finished product:

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these bracelets are to make and plan on making lots more for gifts this season! Taylor had such fun too, I think she would enjoy making these for her teachers this year. She's in 7th grade, so we'll have many teachers to give gifts to this holiday. :) Nichole's video is so fun and easy to follow.

I used 5 homemade beads on this one, which is a little big for my wrist, so I think next time I would use 4 beads instead. This bracelet turned out to be about 8 - 8 1/2" long with the clasps. It was hard to gauge how long to make it!

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I have one more project made with the Beautiful Beads die and papers. First, I pasted some of the strips to white cardstock, then cut it out in a frame shape with one of the Mat Stack 4 dies (Layerz Mat Stack 4).

I used the Heart-2-Heart #7 flower die to cut little flowers with Summer Sunrise Patterned Paper. Love the pinks, oranges and yellows together.

The sentiment was embossed with white embossing powder to contrast with the pink cardstock!

Hello Sunshine card:
Stamps: Think Big Favorites #15
Ink: Fresh Snow
Paper: Raspberry Fizz cardstock, Beautiful Beads Pattern Pack (Pink + Orange Mix)
Dies: Layerz Mat Stack 4 die (frame), Heart-2-Heart #7 (flower)
Other: white embossing powder, corner rounder, rustic twine by Papertrey Ink.
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Beautiful Beads Bracelet:
Stamps: none
Ink: none
Paper: Beautiful Beads Pattern Pack (Blue + Green Mix)
Dies: Beautiful Beads die
Other: beads by EK Success, toggle clasp, crimping beads, beading wire.
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Visit the rest of the team to see more with Beautiful Beads:

Ashley Cannon Newell

Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk

Dawn McVey  

Jessica Witty  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Nichole Heady