I've so much enjoyed seeing the thoughtful gifts so many of you have made with your own little hands! I hope you all keep them coming!
The beaded highlighter I made that's shown in
Post #1 must have caught the eye of some of you because in the past couple of months, I've received a few PMs asking for more details. So I thought I would just go ahead and post them here!
The microbeads I used were purchased at Michael's Craft Store. They were packaged two vials to a package, and they're found right near the rubber stamps. They are not the kind with a hole to string them. Theyre solid little balls.
You have to use a very sticky two-sided adhesive. I picked up the roll of Terrifically Tacky Tape by Provo Craft. You'll see it has a red film that you peel off. It's also found at Michael's. The manufacturer also has this in sheets, which I think would be much better, but I couldn't find it anywhere around here. Besides, I was too anxious to get started so I didn't order it on-line. It is a little expensive as well (the roll I bought was $7.99), so using several 40% off coupons from Michaels really helped! If you go to any website that sells microbeads, however, you'll probably find that there are several brands out there that beads are intended to stick to.
If you look at this web page, you'll see the exact beads I purchased at Michael's. I think it was $1.99 for the two vials. This page also shows you the sheet adhesive.
Here's Provo Craft's website showing their variety of adhesives.
Although there are many steps and labels to prepare, they are really easy. I'm passing along two different websites that have step-by-step instructions.
Here are a few tips:
remember that the smaller the barrel of the highlighter, the less supplies you have to buy (that's why I purchased pen-style highlighters)
buy pens or highlighers that are not tapered at the top; the tapering doesn't get you a clean edge as you wrap the adhesive tape around the barrel
if you're not using adhesive sheets, purchase the most wide tape possible (I purchased the 1.25" tape)
make sure your label is at a minimum the height that will fit around the barrel (for my pen-style highlighter, I used the Avery labels that are 3 across, 10 down in each column)
if the labels are too wide or high for the height of the barrel, with a pencil, mark on your sheet of labels what excess you'll want to trim prior to taking each label off
taking in account the lines you drew, stamp your labels while they are all still on one sheet; I first ran mine through my inkjet printer for the text then stamped the Micky body parts (stamp set I found at JoAnn's); once the labels were all decorated, I put the adhesive tape on the label sheet; finally, I trimmed the excess paper from the sheet (defined by my pencil marks) with my Fiskars Paper Trimmer
I got to tell you that IMO they look AWESOME in person. My Stampin' Up! demonstrator made these for a hostess one time, which is where I got the idea. I simply don't think my pictures did them justice.
BTW, if you have extra supplies, consider using them with Bic pens, and give them away as special trinkets for school teachers or teenage girls....they'll LOVE it!
now what cruise are you on? I want to book it so I can get one 
Scooby I LOVE your frames!
