Been eyeing fashion bib necklaces? Paper bead necklaces? Seen these paper rosette ones in the Anthropologie necklaces section? Are you not really a jewelry maker, but want to make some new jewelry for yourself, mom (mothers day), or a friend’s birthday?! Good. Go for this paper rosette beaded bib necklace crafts project. Practically all you’ll need is a couple of colorful pages from recycled magazines, a glue stick and just the minimum of patience and time.
How make a bib necklace out of old magazines or newspapers.
Step 1: Pick a color scheme. I find that if you start going thru recycled magazines randomly, you’ll just stop at the first pretty picture. But what you’ll need instead is compatible colored paper beads to make into a necklace you’d actually like to wear.
Step 2: Tear colorful pages out of your recycled magazine. I just used 3 pages from a brochure that informed kids to eat fruit. The brochure itself was already made from recycled paper, which means I needed just very little paper, as it was very thick. Glossy magazines have very thin paper pages which contain a lot of ink.
Step 3: To make paper coils, you will need to use the entire length of the paper. To make coils out of glossy fashion magazines, you will want to take the entire page and foil it over and over again till it is 1/4 in thick. This will be your thickness of your bib necklace. If it turns out to be too bulky, just use less paper and make your folds smaller.
In my case of the recycled paper brochure, I only needed 1/3 of a regular magazine-size page.
Step 4: Make paper coil beads. Get your glue stick out. First roll your entire magazine strip into a coil without glue, to pre-curl the paper. Then, put glue along the entire strip and roll it back up. I tied a string around each coil to let it dry for several hours.
You won’t need scissors for this jewelry making project as you can simply tear the paper and fold the torn side towards the inside of your coil bead.
Make each coil bead unique by varying the length of the strips you are coiling. For my bigger two coils, I used two strips. For my tiny coils, I used just a fraction of a strip.
You will find that coils made with two strips that are slightly different in color result in the pretty beads that will remind you of flowers. Paper flower beads.
Step 5: Make your paper coil beads into a bib section for your necklace. Arrange the coils into a slightly crescent moon shape, and position the various coils so the colors blend perfectly together. When you are happy with your arrangement, glue all the coils onto each other. Squeeze your grouping together a bit so there are only small gaps in between the beads. Put a string around your grouping and let it dry.
Step 6: Making the bib into a necklace. Place your bib section on top of a new magazine page, and cut a piece of a paper the same size as your bib for the backside of your bib section. (And, if you are as lucky as I am, you’ll get a pretty girl as a surprise for the back of your bib that is so cute that you may want to wear your bib backwards!)
Take two metal jewelry-making pins *. Attach a medium-sized metal jewelry making ring on each of them. Position the pins on either side of the top of the bib as is shown in the picture. Glue the back-paper, the pins, and the front section with the coils all together. Attach to ribbon on both sides of the bib section, and you’re done. Your paper beaded necklace is ready.
TIP: I highly recommend covering the entire paper section with a couple of coats of suitable varnish. Be that simple clear glue, or high quality paper gloss. Both will do the job of preserving your new paper jewelry piece.
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This is definitely a crafts for kids, that also adults can do. Great project for the last few days of Spring break, as well as any Saturday afternoon in summer when it’s raining.
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More Free Jewelry Making Projects
Use the links in the right sidebar to see all jewelry projects, crafts for kids, beads and paper crafts. Here are some highlights of what you might find there:
- To learn how to make simple paper beads. This is another free crafts tutorial for another style of paper beads that is suitable to make an infinity paper beads necklace.
- To learn how to make a sophisticated beaded necklace: on the contrary, this is a sophisticated beaded necklace tutorial, which is provided by one of the most-well known beaded jewelry instructors and authors around. If you are going to learn jewelry making for real, this is a not-to-miss necklace tutorial.
- For a third stylish fashion beaded jewelry project, consider making these Decoupaged wooden bangle bracelets, which look great but are actually kindergarten-level easy.
- Prefer polymer clay? OK. Try this free jewelry making tutorial for a Necklace and earrings – set
* Jewelry Making Supplies
Click the images to buy open jump rings and jewelry making pins, inexpensively. I opened my jewerly rings by hand, but for any larger rings, you will need jewelry making pliers
