Craft Project: Plastic Bottle Beads

I found a great tutorial for plastic bottle beads on ThreadBanger via Waiting for Wonderland. The beads were very easy and quick to make. I made them a little different than the directions by adding washi paper to them. Below I share how I altered the tutorial and a few tips for making the beads.

Plastic Bead Tutorial, Click here.

Instead of coloring the plastic with markers, I glued washi paper to the plastic. You'll want to cover only part of the plastic with paper. This way when you roll up the plastic to make the bead the paper will not be exposed.

* When making the beads always use caution. Some plastics can be toxic when melted.

* If you don't have a heat gun, a blow dryer will work too; I tried it both ways. However, the heat gun yields better results.

* Be careful of over heating the bead which can lead to the edges curling up. Hold the seam down with tweezers while heating. This will prevent it from curling up.

Close up of the back of the bead. The beads do not look perfect but I suppose that's part of their charm.