I’ve recently been experimenting with decorating paper and using it to make hand-rolled beads. It’s an easy process and lends a distinctive crafty (do I mean crappy?) touch to a necklace.

My first task was to create the decorated paper. For each color theme, I used cardstock and paint or inks. The red/white and the pink/lime necklaces had paper printed from my GelliPlate using acrylic craft paint. I used Distress Oxides and sprayed-on water to get the blue colors that I hoped would resemble shades of denim.

Once the papers were dry, I cut them up into half-inch strips. Pinterest has a ton of how-to links, but the rolling-up process was easy. Using craft glue and a toothpick, I first glued (with gloss ModPodge, my best friend) a tab on each strip that was about an inch long, just by folding over an end. Then I wrapped this tab (without glue on the outside) around a toothpick and continued to wrap, gluing as I went. After removing the toothpick, I set aside each bead to dry.

My last task was to thread some jeweler’s string through the hand-made beads, adding other coordinating beads from my stash. I like how each necklace turned out, and they’re certainly one-of-a-kind!