Your Crafty Ideas

Over the Christmas Holidays, I'll be away at the coast; which means my knitting will be here at home. But I'll also be looking around at craft ideas to share when I return next year for more fun and games here.

While I'm away, feel free to come in and share what craft ideas you've been getting into through the comments section at the bottom of this post. I'll give them a try and post them up giving you full credit for giving me the idea.
So, wherever you are in the world this Holiday Season - and however you celebrate - I wish you all a very happy time with your family and a safe and prosperous New Year. And I do look forward to seeing you all here again next year with more crafty fun things to get our hands busy with. Until my next post, keep knitting and keep creating.

Fun Paper Beads to Make

I saw on 'Better Homes & Gardens' last Friday night how to make this necklace with paper, glue and spray-on varnish. Now, if you're not careful, you'll end up with a blister on one of your thumbs or fingers; so please do take the precaution and wear a band-aid on your thumbs (and don't do what I did and work for hours on end and find that you can't use your dominant hand the next day because your thumb is killing you..:S ).

First thing's first: gather together some paper. Old wrapping paper (something with a bit of substance, not the metallic stuff) and old stationery you've got hanging around with about three sheets left (and you don't know what to do with) is perfect for this project. You'll need a ruler, pencil, scissors, a glue stick and a large table and a bowl as well. Make sure you have a long good-quality wood skewers.

Mark out along the paper with the ruler length-wise isosceles triangles that will fit end to end on the paper then cut them out until you have long lengths of triangles. The wider the base, the longer your paper bead will be; the thinner the base, the smaller and more dense. Then, take up your skewers and - starting at the widest part of your triangle of paper - roll it onto the skewer, then run the glue stick along the rest of the paper until it's coated and then roll the rest of the paper up onto the skewer until it's finished; then start on the next one on the same stick. You can fit up to around 5 beads on one skewer (depending on the size of your beads).

After you've finished around 8 or so skewers, take them outside with the spray-on varnish and (if you've got a box big enough for them, use the box) poke the pointed end into the ground and spray each skewer at close range and leave them alone for about 10 minutes in the sun for them to dry. Then, you can start again. And the result? Well, I made a necklace for my niece out my mine. Isn't it gorgeous?