Answer to quesion: What sealer do you use on the beads?

I use Min-Wax poly acrylic (water based) fast-drying glossy. I've tried lacquer and shellac and varnish and they are too hard to clean up after, too smelly to work with for very long and some go yellow after time so I stand by good old poly-acrylic. They are dry to the touch in about an hour and cure over the next few days until they are as durable and hard as the smelly, hard to clean up after alternatives! Walmart has a good supply in the paint department for about $17.00 a quart and will coat 1,000's of beads! I double dip some, if I need a particular look to the bead, but for regular purposes, one coat is plenty.
IDEA: try cutting straight strips and rolling tube shaped beads - the words or pictures on the papers show up better on tube shaped beads.