Beads From Recycled Newspaper

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• 

  Step 1

  Take a small pile of newspapers from your recycling pile, and rip into small pieces.

  Pop these into your Mixing Bowl!

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  Step 2

  Boil the kettle and cover the ripped up pieces of newspaper with water.

  Leave to soak for an hour or two, keep stirring round

  (alternatively. you can lend these with a stick blender! Which is much quicker!)

• 

  Step 3

  get rid of most of the water (but read step 4 first), and pour in enough glue to ensure all your paper is sticky!

  (if you are finding it hard, you can add a little bit more water so the glue is runnier...this gets squeezed out in a moment anyways!)

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  Step 4

  take small handfulls of the mulched up paper and squeeze out the excess water and glue and mould into small balls. (i went for different size ones this time, but if im trying to reglate the size, i like to keep the water ive drained off, just to keep the beads moist!)

  Place the balls of paper onto your tray and leave to dry for a few days, re moulding the balls every day until they are dry.

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  Step 5

  sand down the bead till its smooth (or relitively so), otherwise you can leave them, for the bumpy look, sometimes I like to keep a mix of both.

  Drill a hole through the middle of the beads, big enough to thread your string or ribbon through. You can use a small hand drill or even just the bit from a drill!

  *the picture shows a sanded bead on the right and one i havent started on on the left, sorry you cant see it too well*

• Step 6

  Paint the bead with the craft paint, and varnish!

  (you can also use acrylic paint, which you wont have to varnish)

• Step 7

  Thread, and enjoy!

Comments

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Liana · 3 projects 20th May 2010

i have done this before, they arent as sturdy as i would like, but i suggest giving them a couple coats of glue(i use mod podge) after they are dry. this helps them to keep their shape. if you really want them to be sturdy you can always coat them in resin.

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I.BE.IS! · Fayetteville, North Carolina, US · 2 projects 5th September 2009

where the beads pretty sturdy?

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