About

Cost
$ $ $ $ $
Difficulty
• • • •
Time
40 mins

these beads feature little 'pages' that you can turn
using a bookbinding technique associated with children's board books, these little beads have pages that fan out to give them their 3D shape...but each page still turns and functions like a page in a book.

Made larger, these could be used as ornaments for the tree or whatever. You could also skewer them onto saté sticks instead of stringing them, and form little paper ball topiaries or cupcake toppers or whatever.

The pages could be pre-printed with a custom design or message, or you could draw individually on each page, or write on them. You could also incorporate other bookbinding techniques like adding pop-ups to the tiny pages, for a really sick little bead.

So go on now and make something! It is later than you think.

Posted by Smallest Forest from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia • Published See Smallest Forest's 15 projects »
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  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 1
    Step 1

    Cut your paper shapes out. You'll need at least 16 pcs.; you can try using more, but remember you need pairs of them.
    I'm using a shape punch called "vinca" The diameter of the shape is the diameter of the bead. This is slightly less than an inch in diameter.

  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 2
    Step 2

    Fold each shape in half, each side must match up symmetrically to the other side of the shape.

  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 3
    Step 3

    Take two pieces at a time, and glue them to each other, one folded side to the other folded side. If you started with 16 pieces of the shape, you'll have 8 of these pictured units, now.

  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 4
    Step 4

    Again, take two of the units just created, and glue one 'page' to a 'page' from its partner unit. You have 4 units now, and each unit has 5 'pages'. You get the idea, keep going, pairing units off.

  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 5
    Step 5

    And so on and on, until you are down to the last two units, and when you glue a page from each of these units together, you are left with one thick stack of little pages.

  • How to make a paper bead. Book Beads - Step 6
    Step 6

    Next, spread glue over the front page of your 'book' and bring the last page around and join them together...creating a torus or ring of pages, with no start or finish.

    And you're all done!

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Comments

B*
B* · 55 projects
So interesting - and really nifty, too!
Thank you for sharing. Happy
Reply
Amanda  L.
Amanda L. · 5 projects
now to find a way to protect it from bending..
Reply
Cupcake_Warrior =)
Cupcake_Warrior =) · 82 projects
This is SO CUTE!!!!! now I just have to find a book i don't mind cutting up........ Happy
Reply
Crystal R.
Crystal R. · Grand Junction, Colorado, US
this is really cute, now I know what I can do with my copy of twilight
Cemre K.
Cemre K. · 6 projects
lol Happy
so true.. i have a partially ruined copy of new moon, i should really do this.
Reply
sillybilly bella
sillybilly bella · 5 projects
cute!
Reply
JennBunny
JennBunny · Hudson, Florida, US · 1 project
This is a fantastic project. I was just look for something to make "beads" for my bookmarks!
Reply
Jennifer B.
Jennifer B. · Houston, Texas, US
This is just too adorable!!
Reply
Smallest Forest
Smallest Forest · Darwin, Northern Territory, AU · 15 projects
To everyone who loved and/or commented on this project: Thanks for shooting it to Featured Projects in just a few days! LOL I have a slow internet connection, so I find it really hard to go and write a comment on each each and everyone's page (or is there a trick I am missing?) so this'll have to do for all of you.
Again, many thanks, please post your versions of this, I am sure you will come up with better and different beads.
Reply
Alias Dani
Alias Dani · U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, US · 20 projects
This looks super cute and easy. I think I might make my friend some, but make double sided pages of text because she loves books and wouldn't want me to deface a precious book. hehe
Reply

CO + K User

this is really cute!
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