I make beads out of junk mail and make friendship bracelets with them and they are easy to do! Use only the shinny paper that comes in the mail and cut or tear it in strips approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2-3 inches. You will also need a toothpick and glue. Take the strip and rub it between your fingers with the toothpick until it is wrapped almost completely around toothpick and add a drop of craft glue to the end and continue rolling through your fingers until it forms a bead. Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes (which gives you plenty of time to make more) and allow to dry. Then take string, thread, cord or elastic and bead to desired size, and voila! You have it a homemade friendship bracelet! This is a great kids project, or if they are not around, I send them to my grandchildren!
I am a girl scout leader and have done this many times with different ages. I use magazines and catalogs. I cut them into long triangles. The long way of the paper(top to bottom) for the straws and the short way(side to side) for toothpicks. For young girls I have them glue the wide end to the strawthen rool and glue the end down. When it dries they can cut right at the each end of the bead or leave a little for color. As the girls get older they use either the straw or toothpick as the base to wrap around, glue the end and slip it off. You can cover them with clear nairpolish or more glue to create a seal and shine. The straws cut into different size pieces also make good and colorful beads to put in between the paper beads.
I have also seen this done around straws so that there is a good hole in the center. You can find straws in different diameters. The neat thing about this is after you wrap the glued paper around the straw you can run a piece of string through the straw and hang it to dry.
hi i hope i do better this time i dont have a pic so youll have to wing it but you make the strips and i use a small amount of glue over whole strip before i roll it around the toothpick.i found it sticks better this way.hope this helps d
I'd like to try this, but I'm not sure of the steps you described. After you cut the strips, do you roll them into a "wheel" using a toothpick for the center, then seal with a drop of glue/ or do you glue the entire strip, then roll it? I need a better explanation, please. Thanks!
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