Tag: projects with leftover beads

Orphan Beads/Leftover Supply Project 5: Beaded Rings

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Ring

I have been making rings like mad lately.

I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but what a great way to use up leftover beads: make some funky little cocktail-style rings with them! There are many affordable add-a-bead type ring bases on the market that you can purchase. These are silver-plated with an adjustable base. I love that they work up quickly and the end result is very cool!

It is a lot of fun to see what patterns emerge when you mix and match different beads. Wrapping them tightly in wire to finish them off makes a nice solid design…the shape is somewhat of a mystery until you finish wrapping.

I especially enjoy using different shapes. The end result is even more intriguing than your usual round bead.

Using up the mishmash of chip beads is by far my favourite material. The beads lay together tightly once wrapped & the colours of the stones blend together very well.

In fact the chip bead rings inspired a new limited edition collection I will be unveiling really soon…:)

Check out my orphan bead project: zipper pulls. 🙂

Orphan Beads/Leftover Supply Project 3: Keychains

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Keychains

Expanding on yesterday’s post on Beaded Bookmarks – the same theory could be applied to make beautiful & inspirational keychains out of leftover beads:

A little positivity to take with you as you go about the day or a little keepsake for your friends & family to know you care. 🙂

Orphan Beads/Leftover Supply Project 1: Hair Accessories

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Hairpins

After 12+ years of jewelry making, I have a lot of beads without a home. Meaning, they are leftovers from past projects – from one to a handful – that I just don’t know what to do with. So when I opened my Etsy Shop, I decided to challenge myself to come up with designs using just the orphans & leftovers. 🙂

I am starting a blog series of quick & easy projects that can be done with leftover beads. I hope this helps kick start your creativity and for you beaders, gives you some inspiration as to what to do with those excess supplies.

The main key to these projects is making sure you have an excess of supplies that can be paired with your beads. So I always have on hand inexpensive ring bases, bead caps, hair pins, etc. that can be adorned with beads.

For idea #1, I give you the hairpin/barrette.

Having two little girls – who both were born with a lot of hair – is my inspiration for this project. I started decorating hair pins and barrettes for Sophie when she was 5 months old. She had quite a bit of hair to begin with, and the bangs were growing fast! I found these were a great way to use up the small lots of leftover beads.

I found out one day, that these hair pins also make great bookmarks! I needed to mark my page in a book, and one just happened to be lying around close by. And voila: dual purposed hair pin/bookmark. 🙂

Besides the hair pins I also like to acquire some of the long metal barrettes to bead on:

Other ideas: bead head bands, hair elastics & hair combs. Hair accessories are an affordable supply to keep around for such projects. They are available practically everywhere. I am always picking them up on sale at local department stores or pharmacies. They are even sold these days at you local Dollar Store. 🙂