How I Got into Bead Weaving

When many people think about "bead weaving", it conjures up images of intricate, but sometimes, garish pieces, usually done by middle-aged women. There is nothing wrong with this image, but my friends at the place where I work were amazed when I, as a 24 year-old with blue hair, discovered a love for brick stitch!

I work at a bead shop and hadn't done much jewellery making before I got the job. (I know... I don't know why they hired me either!) After hearing about bead weaving and the stigma attached, I didn't attempt it at all. It seemed unnecessarily complicated and fiddly, then I was browsing a magazine for ideas for another project, and came across a gorgeous bunting necklace that was made using brick stitch! I love bunting... There's something about it that's just so cute and makes me think of tea. Yum!

Now my first attempt was awful. At the time, I thought it was really good, but looking back, no. It was awful. I even made a pair of brick stitch triangle earrings that were for a magazine project (and were featured in the magazine!) and I'm so ashamed of them now! From that moment on, I developed a delica-addiction. It's not healthy the number of tubes of beads I now have! They are useful to have though.

Look at those terribly wobbly triangles!!

It took me a while before I started to create my own patterns. I used to copy other people's and give them to my friends and family members. I didn't realise how easy it is to  make your own pattern! With the help of Bead Tools, it's so easy! I tend to make them with a reference picture open next to the pattern page. It does take a lot of trial and error though, and I'm often not in a patient mood!

This panda is made using a pattern I made myself.

I heard about square stitch thanks to Pixelosis. She creates amazing pixelated pieces of jewellery using this technique. I knew that I wanted to give it a try! I'm still extremely new to this stitch and have only recently mastered the art of increasing! I really want to make tutorials on this stitch, but it takes a very long time to make charms with it. Definitely one for people with patience. With square stitch, it's possible to make things using Perler/Hama bead patterns, and there's lots of them all over the internet!

I need to master Peyote, then I will have three different stitches under my belt! There are so many bead weaving stitches out there! I'm excited to see what things I can create with them.

My favourite stitch is definitely brick stitch. Do you have a favourite? If so, which is it?

Spooky Sundays

I'm sorry I've not posted in so long! Life has caught up with me a little bit. Working full time and maintaining YouTube is proving more difficult than I thought it would!

I've decided to start Halloween videos, now that October is here and Autumn is upon us. I'm terrible at thinking of catchy names, but alliteration is always a good move...

I've only done 2 Spooky Sunday videos at the moment, but they're a great way to get started with preparing for Halloween! They're also relatively straight forward to do, which is always a bonus.

First up is this skull bracelet, made using plastic skull beads with leather cord.

The technique used is common amongst macramé; the square knot. If you're interested in starting macramé, the square knot is a great place to start!

The second video I made is for this 3D beaded spider! I found the pattern on this blog and knew that I had to give it a try! I was chatting to Sarah from SoCraftastic, and we said that we wanted to learn to make 3D beaded animals. Spiders were perfect for this time of year :D

I can't wait to learn to make other types of animals and other techniques to make 3D beaded animals :D

teapigs - Video Roundup

If you haven't been watching my recent videos on YouTube, you may not be aware of how generous the people at teapigs have been with me! They've been kind enough to send me tea to make videos on and give my opinions about it!

I received a Chai, Chilli Chai, Peppermint and Licorice, Lemon and Ginger and their new Matcha drinks! I can't believe how kind they have been!

It's not just me who benefits though, you all do too! If you use the voucher code "craft" in the promo code box when buying your tea, before the end of August 2014, you will receive a whopping 10% off!! Such generosity! http://teapigs.co.uk

Here's a recap of the videos that I've filmed so far, featuring teapigs tea.

First of all, I made chai cupcakes! These were delicious and had the gorgeous taste that the blended spices of chai provides.

My next video was showing how to make iced tea, using the Lemon and Ginger tea. It's so simple to make iced tea, and it's perfect for those (rare) hot days. I also made iced tea using the Licorice and Peppermint tea.

Finally (for the moment) I filmed a tea review for the matcha drinks. I did tea reviews on my old YouTube channel, but enjoyed making and filming them so much, I decided to transfer them over!

Be sure to head on over to http://teapigs.co.uk and check out their range of teas! They have everything for any mood or feeling. (They also make great gifts for tea-lovers ;) )

DIY Tattoo Choker

There were so many trends from the 90's that should definitely stay there and be forgotten about, but tattoo chokers aren't one of them! I was so pleased when I saw that they were making a comeback, along with 90's grunge fashion. I definitely wore beaded ones back in the day, although I wasn't particularly fashionable or "grungey", much like the people dressing like that today!

I was outraged when I saw that Topshop were selling these stretchy chokers for £5.00 each! Something so expensive for something so simple to make. Even Claire's Accessories are selling them for £4.50. No thank you! It was at this point that I started researching how to make them. I found a couple of really-good YouTube videos that taught me the technique, but I wanted to add beads too and no one had attempted that yet (from what I had seen anyway...)


I had a bit of a play around with making a couple of bracelets before giving the choker a go and I think I have worked out the technique.

I used 0.7mm Stretch Magic in Black, size 8 black Czech glass seed beads and a size 3 crimp tube to finish it off. I do explain an alternative way of finishing in the choker in the video above.

Have fun going back to the 90's! Be sure to share a pic on Instagram with me, @TheCornerofCraft, by using #TheCornerofCraft (or #TheCofC if you can't be bothered to type it all out...)

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Recipe

So Sunday was stocktake day at the shop I work in. I work in a bead shop so this involves a lot of concentrating, counting and weighing. We knew it was going to be a long day, so it only made sense that cake should be there too!

My contribution to the sweet treats were some delicious chocolate chunk shortbread, which were cut out into adorable teapot shapes! (How cute is my crockery btw??)

To make, these cute shortbreads, you will need:
225g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
110g corn flour
225g plain flour
1 pinch of salt
50g dark chocolate
50 milk chocolate


Method:

1) Line your baking trays, either with baking paper or grease with butter.

2) Whisk together the butter and caster sugar until the colour is a pale yellow. This should take a couple of minutes. Don't forget to scrape down the sides of your bowl with the spatula! Sift in the flour, corn flour and pinch of salt into the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined. I found a wooden spoon easiest for this as corn flour will fluff up and go everywhere...

3) Cut your chocolate into chunks and add to the mixture. If you'd prefer to use pre-chunked chocolate or choc chips, that's also fine! Mix the chocolate in well.Bring the dough together and put it onto some baking paper. Put another piece of baking paper on top and roll out the dough until it is about 1cm thick. The baking paper will stop the dough sticking to your rolling pin!

4) Cut out the biscuits into the shape you want and pop them onto the lined baking tray. After you have cut all your shapes out, put them into the fridge for 30 minutes while your oven is preheating to 170 degrees celcius.

5) Put the biscuits into the oven for 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown in colour. Everyone's ovens are different so you may want to check frequently.

6) After cooking, leave the biscuits on the baking tray for a couple of minutes to cool before transferring to a wire cooling rack. I personally made a small tray out of foil to put until my cooling rack. This is because you now want to sprinkle sugar on top of the biscuits, and sugar will go everywhere unless it's contained! Then you're finished :)

Loom Band Butterfly: How To!

So I am late at hopping on the bandwagon, I know! Children are going absolutely mad for these small elastic bands, and I should know: I work in a shop that sells them. We can't get them in stock quick enough, it's ridiculous! And it doesn't look like the trend is slowing down any time soon.

Because I am a serious novice, I won't be making many YouTube videos on how to make "Rainbow Loom" or stretch band (or whatever you call it...) bracelets and charms. There are so many other YouTubers out there who have a lot more skill and talent than me in that area of craft!

We got a new book in at work, called Rubber Band Bracelets by Lucy Hopping and I was having a flick through it and saw something that took my fancy: loom band butterflies! The best part is, you don't even need a loom to make them!

I don't have any sort of "official" hook, so I just used my crochet hook, because I have plenty of them lying around my house... I picked up some bands and went for it.

I can't believe how easy it is to make these little butterflies. I had 4 made in no time at all. You can use these butterflies as charms to enhance the bracelets you're making, but I glued mine onto a hairclip and brooch back so I can wear them that way instead.

Delicious Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Lollies!

The boyfriend and I "treated ourselves" to some ice lolly moulds from ASDA a couple of weeks ago. I mean, they were only £2.50 so we were hardly breaking the bank! That evening, we decided to whiz up some strawberries, add some yoghurt and a touch of sugar then freeze them to see what happened. Turns out we'd made delicious lollies!

The lolly mould we've bought (image from ASDA)

We were clever and didn't note down quantities but that day we had enough mixture to make 6 lollies. I decided to film a video for The C of C on YouTube on how I made these, as I'd had a request via my Facebook page so here we go!

To make 5 lollies, you will need:

20 Strawberries (The strawbs I used were pretty small!)
5 tbsp Low Fat Natural Yoghurt
2 tsp Granulated Sugar

Utensils:

Lolly Mould (or yoghurt pots that have been washed out and lolly sticks)
Stick Blender
Spatula
Spoon
Teaspoon
Jug
Chopping Board
Sharp Knife.

Start by hulling the strawberries (this just means taking off the leaves and stalk" and place 15 of them in the jug. Slice the other 5 strawberries thinly and place to one side as these will line our moulds.

Whiz up the strawbs in the jug using the stick blender until there are no lumps left. Scrape excess juice off the blender using the spatula.

Spoon in 5 spoonfuls of the yoghurt and give it a mix. Taste and if it isn't sweet enough for you, add the sugar. I find that 2 tsp is enough, but you can add more if you like.

Line the lolly moulds with the thinly sliced strawberry, just adding slices sporadically. Pour in the strawb-yoghurt mixture.

Gently bang the mould on the counter a couple of times to pop any air bubbles, add your sticks and pop the lollies into the freezer for at least 3 hours.

If you can't get the lollies out of the moulds once frozen, run the mould under some cold tap water for around 10-15 secs and you should find that the lolly comes right out!

Enjoy!

Crochet for Beginners: UK Treble Crochet TR (US Double Crochet DC)

Are you starting to see where the US and UK terminology cross over? It gets very confusing when you first start, but try to just stick to just UK or US patterns when you first start so you don't have to try and "translate" them at all :)

So here is my next video, the UK treble crochet or US double crochet! I have had some lovely feedback on my videos and already have some subscribers so thank you so much for your support! Don't forget that you can subscribe too so you don't miss out on any future videos.

Crochet for Beginners: UK Double Crochet DC (or US Single Crochet!)

So the second video that I uploaded to my YouTube channel demonstrates how to do the basic double crochet stitch! For those of you who aren't aware, US and UK crochet terms are different, annoyingly, so where I can, I will try to list the alternative term :)

Crochet for beginners: Chain Stitch Ch (and my venture into YouTube...)

So I have set up a YouTube channel... I don't know if this is going to be a success or useful to anyone, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway! My first videos are a series of how to do basic crochet stitches! There's going to be 3 videos posted a week, although that may severely cut down in the future. I sound really awkward on camera at the moment, but I'm hoping that the more I do it, the more used to it I'll become and the more relaxed I'll be :)

If you'd like to check out my channel, visit http://youtube.com/thecornerofcraft

Here's the first video! How to do the basic chain stitch: