Friday, March 11, 2016

DIY Paper Bead Roller and Bead Hole Maker

 These are my favorite Paper Bead making tools.
These tools are so easy to make and you only need a few items to create them all.

What you will need to make these tools:                                                                    Price
1)  pen will make : 1 Paper Bead Rolled and 1 Bead Hole maker                     a pack of 5 pens $1
1)  3/32 cotter pin (for the roller)                                                                       a pack of 6 for .69 cents
1) 1 1/2  inch Bright Wire  Nail     (for the hole maker)                                    a pack of nails $2.49

A Glue gun                                                                                                          $5
A few Glue sticks                                                                                                $4.97

The prices above reflect what you would have to spend if you did not have any of these items in your crafting supplies.
When I created mine it cost be about  .50 cents as i just had to purchase a few cotter  pins.

Gather your supplies together

The hardware store near me sells the cotter pins separately  for between .10 and .15 cents each so I picked up a bunch of different sizes to test out, the 3/32  worked the best for me. 

Take the old pen apart.
Get rid of the ink section and the white part of the clicker if your pen has one.

 Now just fill some of the empty section of half of the pen with hot glue and place the cotter pin
into the hot glue. Center the cotter pin  the best you can, once the cotter pin is placed add some more hot glue to fill in the hole and  to seal it in good and tight so it does not move..

And there you have it a paper bead roller. For this 1 I used the top of an old pen.  I just love this roller and since these pens had a grip on them it felt very comfortable in my hand as I used it.

 This one was made from the bottom of the same kind of pen with a longer and thinner cotter pin.

When using the bottom of the pen, make sure to glue the loose clicker into the bottom space of the pen to give it a  nice rounded bottom and a more finished look.

 Since this cotter pin was longer and thinner  it makes smaller holes in the paper beads  but it is not as strong as the other  one. In order to use this paper bead roller I needed to add 2 beads in order to stabilize it . Beads are formed in between the 2 beads if you do not use the beads 
it will separate and your paper bead will unwind easily.

 I also used a dremel  to trim the clip off of the bottom of the pen. This way it does not feel uncomfortable in your hand and it will not be in the way while you are making your beads.


Bead Hole Making Tool
This tool helps you to  have nice clean holes in your beads . To make these tools you just place nails into the hot glue instead of the cotter pin.


 One hole Bead tool.




Two hole bead tool



Above are the tools that I  use when I create my 1,2 and 3 hole beads.
 You will have to decide what tools you will need in your supplies and how many you want to make. I do not like making my beads larger than 1 inch, so these are all the tools I need.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Cheryl,
    Love your bead rollers! I actually did come up with some bead rollers made with old pens but I like seeing your tutorial of them. I never did think of using hot glue though. I actually made one for my self by making a paper bead with a cone nose and used that to center my cotter pin in the pen's nose. I just glued it in with super glue. It feels great to be an inventor doesn't it? Nice job!

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  2. What a wonderful use of old pens. Thanks for your tutorial and great photos.

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  3. Amazing! The best idea I've ever seen! Thanks so much for posting.

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  4. Thank you for putting this on Pinterest. Your directions were very clear. Can't wait to get materials
    and try this!

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    Replies
    1. You are most welcome glad you found this useful.

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  5. ?Where did you purchase your pretty pen at?

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    1. kaboom they were old pens from dollar 💲 tree

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  6. Cotter pin is great idea!!! Bingo!

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