Friday, April 13, 2012

April 13 Friendzy Friday-Microbeads

Recently TSF received a shipment of microbeads from American Crafts. I was intrigued by these teeny, tiny beads and wondered what you could do with them.

They come in a wide array of bright colours and some neutrals.



I had taken a shaker card class designed by Joanne and we used some beads as filler for the cards


but I thought there has to be a use for these in scrapbooking too as I am not a prolific card maker. So here is what I came up with. You will need liquid glue, glue dots or a Xyron sticker maker (which I do not have any longer as my boys have adopted it) and some sort of tray to catch the beads. Embossing trays work well.



After getting these supplies together I started looking at my stash to see what could be embellished with these wee little beads. Diecuts, plain chipboard, adhesive chipboard you don't like anymore but have sticky backs etc are all fair game.
Glue dots allow you to add polka dot beads anywhere you like

A liquid adhesive, like 3n1, allows the beads to stay pliable
and you can squish them into small spaces
Any self-adhesive shapes work great. Just flip them over and sprinkle with beads

Add beads to trees and as butterfly bodies




What I discovered is these beads are tons of fun to add some texture to just about anything. I started with blue and green but think how pretty the silver ones would be on snow layouts or the bright red ones on balloon diecuts. The options are truly endless.
These beads are in stock now!

2 comments:

Christa said...

Shelby, I love mirco beads! It's cool to see how different sticky mediums hold the beads...I may have to get my XYRON out! Thanks for the tips.

Avril Tanner said...

oh Shelby! These are all really great ideas for the Microbeads!