My mom introduced me to making beaded bookmarks a few years ago. They're a ton of fun to make and I love to coordinate the beads with the books. These beaded bookmarks pictured below coordinate with my Peter and the Starcatchers series and my Twilight books. My mom sent me one that coordinates perfectly with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I love having a stylish bookmark and I love seeing them dangle from my favorite books on the shelf. Although, they're very easy and fun to make, there are a few trade secrets to making a good beaded bookmark. The key is finding a good cord to work with. We've found that waxed linen is the only way to go. When mom came out for a visit to NJ, we couldn't find waxed linen so I talked her into getting some black waxed cording that looked like waxed linen. She was hesitant but I thought it would work. I also bought some hemp cording. So I bought both of them thinking that they would do just fine. Wrong. Don't settle for imitations, they just don't work as well. Waxed linen has this stiffness that makes it easy to work with, keeps knots perfectly tight, and lies straight unlike most cording on a spool. I found my waxed linen from a website called http://www.fusionbeads.com/. I buy my beads on sale at places like Michael's, Joann, and Wal-mart. If you are interested in jg original, they're $5 a piece. And yes, they make a perfect stocking stuffer!
8 comments:
I tried making some with black hemp cording and just ended up frustrated because they didn't look as nice as your mom's. Thanks for the tip.
New book suggestion: "These is my words".
hey Jen! I LOVE the bookmark you gave me for my birthday in April--in fact my mom is in town for the holidays and complimented it. I had no idea you MADE it! very cool.
Look forward to following you on here :)
i love the bookmarks..now i just need to get reading :) and all your cute cards reminds me of our late card-making nights and sleepovers in Germany! how i wish i could just come over and do it again. do you have any advice on making a t-shirt quilt? i need to do something with all my "memorable" t-shirts.
Thanks Jen, I was going to ask you where you got the "waxed linen" on those bookmarks, now I know. I LOVE mine and use it all the time and I was thinking of giving my mother-in-law a book with a matching beaded bookmark. Thanks for the great idea.
Girl! that is the perfect gift for Anneka my twilight reading crazy. Jen, I need to buy one from you. Do you take paypal? I will talk to u more later when I am more awake and it is not so late...but those are way cute. Love it.
I just love them hanging from books too I was just looking at the photos. You should sell them on etsy.com.
That a great idea! I could really use one of those myself.
Wow, I was behind on your blog. You've been up to all sorts of crafty fun. :)
Jen-
I love these! They are so cute! I too, tried to make them last year and got extremely frustrated with the hemp I was using...thanks for the great tip!
Merry Christmas!
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