Cardboard Beads While working on some cardboard projects with Electra and Isis I was intrigued by all the great colors and patterns that were ending up in my scrap pile. Electra has been really into stringing beads this past month and it dawned on me that cardboard would be great for stringing. The corrugated inner core of the cardboard means you can choose any hole to thread the bead through. You can customize the size and shape. You can decorate it. It can be glossy or matte... The possibilities are endless.

So after reconsidering the scraps, we ended up with some really fun beads. I really liked the natural color of the cardboard playing off the primary tones, but you could glue two beads together for color on both sides. I loved the ones with Japanese kanji, but my favorite bead of all was one made by cutting around the oval-shaped handle hole in the side of a vegetable box. It created a giant "O" bead.

We also made hair clips by pushing the cardboard squares onto metal hair clips. We didn't attempt rings and bracelets because, well, we've got a lot of work to do and we don't want our accessories to slow us down.