Magazine Page Bead Covered Vase

Don’t you love the recycled paper crafts taking over the craft world these days?  If you have been here before, you probably know that I am mildly obsessed with them.  Awhile back, I showed you this coiled magazine page vase.  It is gorgeous, but took a century to make and is not water friendly.  That, combined with the fact that I have rolled literally thousands of paper beads over the last couple of months, led me to create this glass carafe wrapped with magazine page beads. (For awesome video on how to make your own paper beads, see this post).

It took close to 1000 paper beads; 988 to be exact.  I strung a clear glass seed bead every 4th paper bead as well.  So, while it was a simple project, it, like all the paper coil and paper bead projects, is time consuming.  It didn’t seem like that long since I spread it over a long period.  I used fishing line, and strung about 30 beads at a time, placed a bead buddy after the last strung bead to hold the strand taut, and began wrapping around the carafe, adhering the strand with a dot of hot glue ever 10 beads or so.  I just kept on until I got to the top of the carafe where I ran out of paper beads I wanted the beads to end.  I sealed the whole beaded area with 2 coats of Mod Podge.

I can put real flowers in here, with water and everything!  And I got to use up my stash of extraneous paper beads that didn’t find their way into a piece of jewelry.  If all that weren’t enough to make me the happiest crafter, the carafe came from my neighbor’s recycle pile.  Score!