Book Bead Curtain Art – Recycled Craft Tutorial

Book beads are a great touch to any book-lover’s decor. There are many different ways to incorporate them into jewelry, but have you ever thought about using them to decorate your apartment, dorm room, or house? This recycled craft tutorial will show you how to do exactly that.

Materials

The following materials are needed to make the book bead curtain:

• Paper Beads
• Glass beads
• Cord or hemp
• Scissors
• Wire

1. Making Paper Beads from Books

There are many different ways to create paper beads from books. For a better understanding of how book beads work, I recommend checking out this Guide to Making Paper Beads from BigLittleBead.com. The main requirement for making the paper beads is having paper to cut into strips. Here are TrashyCrafter.com, we strongly recommend using your favorite old books for a truly personal touch. Don’t want to cut up your own books? Check out the local Goodwill store for a great selection. Once you have the paper material, you can start the process of cutting them into beads.

For this, we suggest using the 4M Recycled Paper Beads Kit. This kit is available on Amazon for only $8.95. This is a great way to speed up the process of creating the paper beads (as they usually take ~1 minute/ each if you are creating them by hand). After rolling the beads with the paper bead kit, you will need to apply glue to prevent the beads from unraveling. Once the glue dries, you should have paper book beads, ready for threading.

2. Glass Beads (Optional)

If you want to add some variety to the beads on your curtain, consider adding some glass beads to the mix. Unless you are a glass blower (which is awesome), you can get a variety pack of glass beads from Amazon for ~$15.

Alternatively, in the spirit of TrashyCrafter.com, you may want to consider finding items around the house to thread on the curtains. Things that you may want to consider include:

• Buttons
• Bottle Caps
• Cans or Bottles

Get creative and add some variety to those curtains!

3. Scissors

Not too much to say about scissors! You are going to be cutting the twine so find something that fits comfortably.

If you are looking for something cheap, may we suggest the 3-pack of AmazonBasic’s scissors. Throw one pair in the craft drawer, one in the tool shed, and one in the kitchen.

4. Cord or Hemp

Finally, we are going to need some sort of cord or hemp to hang our awesome beads from. This doesn’t need to be anything too fancy. We personally like the rustic look and feel of some simple twine. For example, you can get 328 feet of natural twine for ~$6 on Amazon.

Creating the Paper Bead Curtains

Once you have all of the necessary materials collected, we can get started with actually creating the beads and curtains. Below is a step-by-step guide to actually create the curtains:

1. 1. Get a piece of wire to use as the top hanger. The size of this will vary based on how wide you want your curtain to be.
   2. Cut enough strips or cord or hemp to span the entire length of the hanger, leaving them 1/2″-1″ apart. You can make them as long as you want, just remember that the longer the cord is, the more paper beads that you’re going to need to fill it.
   3. Tie a knot at the bottom of each strip of cord or hemp.
   4. Place a glass bead (optional) at the bottom before stringing on the paper beads, this gives the strand weight so it hangs down nicely.
   5. Fill the remainder of the strand with paper beads.
   6. Repeat this process until all of the cords or hemp strips are filled.
   7. Tie each filled cord or hemp strip to the hanging wire.
   8. Enjoy!

   To see an awesome example of a finished product, check out paperbeads.org!

   Last updated on 2018-12-14 / Affiliate Links / Images for Amazon Product Advertising API

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