Paper Beads Out of Just About Anything

A few months ago I started to experiment with making paper beads out of packaging material; from frozen food containers to feminine hygiene packaging, you name it I've tried it.  And it's created some really cool pieces, like this necklace made from a Tampax box.  However, I often found that the pieces of the cardboard would separate making the rolling process more of a challenge than I like.  I decided one day to stop fighting it and happy that I had because I ended up with a finished product that looked like this bracelet.

To achieve this sleeker look I had to peel the layers of the cardboard apart which means that I have a mass quantity of cardboard shreds sans color that I was going to have to chuck into the recycle bin.  I did not like this idea, so I came up with a better way to use those bland cardboard strips in my paper bead making endeavors.  Check out this two part tutorial on YouTube to see what I did.



First how to get your cardboard strips and roll those beads:

And now to add a little color and glaze those puppies:

Have fun and post below to tell me how you used your paper beads!