Mixed-media artist Cyndi Lavin from Beading Arts has kindly made a free ebook — Every Bead Has a Story: Bead Emroidery Stitches — available for download that will take you through a range of illustrated bead embroidery techniques you can use in your jewellery making and other crafting projects.

Once you’ve got these techniques under your belt, you’re only limited by your imagination.

You can download Cyndi’s free ebook from here.

Apart from the great articles, projects and how-to videos, one excellent feature of the FaveCrafts site is its free downloadable ebooks — you can view the latest ones here and you’ll find more in the individual craft categories.

The beading ebook really caught my attention and if you’re a beader, you’re definitely going to want to download it. It contains instructions for beaded jewellery sets, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and home decor projects.

You can also sign up to have the FaveCrafts newsletter delivered to your email inbox or keep up-to-date with new additions to the site via RSS.

You can download your free beading ebook from here.

And one of the cool things about being a crafter is that you can often use lots of stuff that you would ordinarily throw out, thereby giving it a new life instead of assigning  it to landfill.

If you want to do your little bit for the planet, save some money and get a craft fix at the same time, you should consider working recycled materials into your crafting, and there’s a way to do it for just about any craft.

One way for beaders to get into recycling is to make their own paper beads. You’ll find lots of how-to videos on making your own beads from old magazines and junk mail on YouTube including the one below, and you can check out lots more here.

There are a variety of bead shapes you can make and the appearance of each bead will be determined by the type of paper and the print colours you choose, so your beads will be different to everyone else’s. You’re only really limited by your imagination.

I’ll post links to other ways you can repurpose no-longer-wanted items as I come across them.

This site also has other great free projects, plus the pay-to-download recipes are very reasonably priced.

You can sign up to to the site here to receive free email notification of new additions to the site, plus beaded jewellery tips and tricks, and you can join in the community forums with other beaders.

You can experiment with the number of beads and the gap between them — you can easily undo the crocheting and begin again, but always thread on more beads than you think you’ll need, because that is the one thing you can’t add if your lariat comes up short.

Materials
3 or 4ply knitting cotton or 0.5mm rat tail stringing thread amount depends on desired lariat length)
Beads — mixed sizes and finishes in the colour scheme of your choice (the number depends on how close you want the beads to each other and how long you want your lariat to be.
3.50 crochet hook
superglue

Instructions
1. Apply superglue to the first 2cm of the cotton (this forms a ‘needle’ to help you easily thread your beads — be very careful to not get the glue on your fingers. Let the thread dry thoroughly.

2. Thread beads on your thread in the pattern that you desire, being generous with the number of beads — you can always finish your lariat with beads left over, but if you don’t have enough, you’ll have to begin again from this step.

3. Taking your hook and thread and leaving several centimetres from the superglued end, make a slip knot.

4. Pull down the first bead and incorporate it into a single chain. Make four chain and then draw up the next bead and incorporate it into the next chain. Continue in this manner until the lariat reaches the deisred length or you run out of beads.

To finish off, thread the beginning thread back through the first bead and trim flush with where it emerges. At the other end, once you’ve crocheted in your last bead, draw the thread through and pull tight and cut a few centimetres from the bead. Then apply superglue to last centimetre, dry thoroughly and, as was done with the other end of the lariat, thread the tail back through the last bead and trim flush with where it emerges. Dab a small amount of superglue on each knot — a toothpick is good for applying this.

The lariat is very versatile and can be worn singularly or doubled and looped through itself (as in the pic below) for a shorter necklace.

You can also wear a number of complimentary lariats together (different coloured thread and/or different coloured beads) — if you plan to do this, staggering the ends instead on lining them up can be very effective. For a more glam version of this lariat, you could use glittery thread.