Creating beautiful beaded decor can be very challenging. When working with tiny beads you can count on hours and hours of eye-straining, tedious work to produce even the smallest of decor pieces. However, there is one technique, when it comes to doing beadwork, that is so simple anyone can do it. You wont need a needle or twine to create gorgeous beaded pictures for nearly any room of your house.
Do you know what seed beads are? Sometimes shaped like tiny, elongated seeds, sometimes not, seed beads are simply tiny beads. You can purchase the really small beads in assorted colors, shapes and sizes at most any craft store. The seed beads can be used to make any number of pictures and designs with ease. Decide on the particular picture you want to do before selecting the assorted beads for the project.
There are lots of different things you can use as the pattern for your new beaded picture. Coloring book pages work really well because the detail is usually not real intricate. Other choices might be a calendar photo, a picture from a magazine or even a section cut from a poster. For best results choose a picture that does not have intricate detail that will be challenging to bead. Start by gluing the selected picture to a piece of thick cardboard. Trim the cardboard to fit the picture. Now you can proceed to do the outlining and beading. Select the roping or twine you will use for the outlining. Glue lengths of the small-diameter twine to the areas which are outlined on a coloring book page. If youre using a calendar picture or other image you can use the roping to outline the main items in the picture. Although black twine or roping will give you a very distinct outline you can actually use any color you want. However, youll find the picture will turn out best if you use only one color of roping for the outlining. Roping can also be used to highlight things like an animals eyes or nose or even to make tiny birds in the sky. Use a small paintbrush to apply white glue to the areas which will receive the beads. Start with one section, apply the glue, then sprinkle on the selected beads. You can do some highlighting by using a second color of beads. For example, use white beads down one side of a lighthouse picture, then fill in the rest of the lighthouse image with blue beads. The white beads will give the illusion that the sun is shining on that area of the lighthouse. Continue doing one section after another, starting with images in the center of the picture, and ending with the complete background of the picture. Take care to cover the whole section with a thick coat of glue without actually getting the adhesive on the roping. So, for each section you do, add the glue, sprinkle on the beads, press the beads into the glue with the palm of your hand or a flat object, then turn the picture over to dump off the excess beads. Dont worry if there are areas where there are no beads; you can fix that later. However, its helpful to try to get the glue to cover the entire section so that rework is kept to a minimum. Complete each section before moving on to the next area. If youve applied the beads, and there are still areas of the picture that are showing through, add a little extra glue by using a toothpick or tiny paintbrush. Apply the glue to these bare areas, add extra beads, pat them down, then turn the picture over to dump off the excess. The finished picture can then be placed in a picture frame or can be hung as-is. Its really easy to make beaded pictures when you already have the picture to use as a pattern. Simplistic pictures work best for easy beading but even those simplistic pictures will turn out beautiful when you use the simple beading technique. The smaller the beads, the better the picture will look, since its difficult to see the holes of the beads when theyre really small. The same beading technique can be used to make designs on lampshades and other things in your home, too. Carbon paper is helpful to transfer the paper image to the desired surface. Try your hand at doing a
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