GCD Studios and Floss Necklace with Tutorial

There has been so much inspiration at the GCD Studios blog lately that I decided I really needed to play with some GCD goodies. I wanted to combine their chipboard with their paper but in a bit of a different way which made me think of the Moxie Fab floss challenge because it hit me. A necklace! I’m sure at least some of you have seen these paper beads before and they are very simple to make but I want to walk you through the project just in case you’d like to play with paper beads.

First I picked out my charms. A hand painted bead from an impulse buy at the craft store. Then I turned to my GCD Shades of Black chipboard. Now as other fans of GCD may know the chipboard is self adhesive which I love because it meant a way to add some quick texture to the back by covering the back with some beautiful flocked paper from the Bright Skies collection. I also tied my yellow in with a little flower on the J. I poked a hole with a paper piercer in each piece and then strung them.

To make the paper beads you simply cut paper strips to your desired thickness (I used ½, 1, and 1 ½ inch widths for my beads) and at least six inches long. Put a small bit adhesive on the end of the side you would like to be shown. Then put some additional adhesive on the other side. Roll around a pen or other utensil.

Now these paper beads made from some gorgeous black and white GCD paper are fab but I wanted to add a bit of interest to them and pull my yellow back in so I decided to give the beads a stitched look with floss. To do this you only need to make a few stitches on the tail end of the bead before you finish rolling.

I wanted these to be dangly charms, not coming right off the necklace so I needed a way to attach the string to the main necklace string. Well typing it on is simple enough but not quite so pretty. So I made an extra large bead again using floss stitching then I cut a slit to the middle where the paper met. Next I put the tied together chipboard charms over the necklace string then slid the charm string to the center of the large bead.

Now what I’m sure you’re all thinking is: Can I wear this? Well I’ve got to admit it’s a little delicate because it’s made of paper after all. But you can seal paper beads with modge podge to make them more durable and as for my necklace my sister is a big fashionista and I know she would love to display it on a necklace form just as a conversation piece. So that’s it my floss project hope it inspires you to take another look at some supplies you have laying around.