Tutorials Archives - Page 9 of 10

Earring Making Tutorial

July 17, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

I’m so proud to say that Earringology is officially available! To celebrate, I’ve got a quick earring tutorial for you today!My Aunt Jane has been talking about picking berries. I want some. Right now. I can eat them like popcorn annnnd I usually pay for it later, but they’re so worth it! Do you have any favorite berry recipes?

Oh Summer, please stick around for as long as you can.

These beads make me think of berries. That’s why all the berry talk. Sorry.

The berry beads and chain are from JesseJamesBeads.com and the remaining findings are from Beadalon. The thing I love about this design is that they are light and dangly with just the right amount of sparkle.

Ok, enough rambling…let’s do this!I use Beadalon Ergo pliers. Have for years! I’m a loyal dog. You can find a set of pliers that feel comfy to you.String the bead onto the decorative head pin wire and finish with a wrapped loop following the pictures.Make a 90 degree bend at the end of the wire. Grasp the wire with the round nose pliers next to the bead. Ding! Move to the next picture.Remember those tapes and story books? Or were they film strips? Maybe both. Anyway! Wrap the wire up and over the top of the round nose pliers. This will form the loop nicely.Now, wrap the extra wire around the base of the loop as many times as you can or like.Does it look kind of like this? Good deal!Trim the excess wire (even though the picture before said that already). Did I mention you need to trim that wire?Open a jump ring with chain nose pliers and connect the chain to the ring and then…. (ding)the berry dangle.Close the ring. At this point, you can decide how long you want the chain section and trim it to that length. I left mine about 1.5″ long because this pair of earrings is ready to party!Open another jump ring and connect to the opposite end of the chain.Then attach the ear wire to the jump ring.And close the ring! Easy peasy!On that note, I’ve gotta run. My to-do list is calling my name. Back to school craft projects are at the top of the list. Already?? I know.

Have a great day! And let me know if you decide to take a peek at Earringology. I care what you think of it! <3

Filed Under: Books, Jewelry, Tutorials

How to Make a Boho Bead and Chain Necklace

May 19, 2014 By candiecooper 6 Comments

Hola beautiful people! How have you been? I’m doing better now that my blog is working again (thanks for asking). Sheesh. I went to upload pictures to this post and got errors. Then I updated to the new WordPress followed by a couple plugins only to find those actions were actually dominos of destruction that would lead to broken links, not being able to login etc…. I stayed up working late on Friday night in an attempt to fix it. At midnight, I surrendered and admitted to myself that I was in over my head. I thought, “why am I fighting this? Go to bed, Candice.” That brings us to this morning when I found even more quarks that happened and so I called my hosts hotline number. Thirty seconds later it was fixed. Dear Betsy! And praise the Lord! I just had to get that out. Thanks for listening. Moving on.

Now, I’ve got Romancing the Stone on and I’m ready to write. Just like Joan Wilder. My friend mentioned it the other day and that got the itch to watch it started. I watch it purely for the beginning of the movie. I love the scenery, I love watching her finish her book in tears, I love when she has notes all over to buy tissue, but she’s still out of tissue. Makes me feel completely normal.

This boho bead and chain necklace tutorial started when Beadalon asked for pieces for their “Tropical” trend board on Pinterest. I got the wood beads on clearance somewhere…a really really long time ago. Bead hoarders unite! I blended them in with tropical color czech glass beads. I like the contrast of the metal, glass and wood surfaces together.First, string your beads onto beading wire. I’m using Beadalon’s satin gold (19 strand, .024″) so it blends with the color of the chain. String a #2 crimp bead followed by the ends of the chain. For this necklace, I doubled over a piece of chain to make it thicker.String the tail of wire through the crimp and slide the crimp bead up next to the chain. Now, put the crimp bead into the “U” shaped notch of your crimping pliers and clinch down.See the “U” shaped crimp bead?Now turn the “U” ninety degrees so it looks like a “C” and put it in the eye shaped slot of the crimp pliers and clinch down to fold the crimp bead over.

P.S. those are my husband’s hands. He walked by and saw me fumbling with my camera while trying to crimp and said, “I’ll be in the picture. I want to be in the picture.” If you know Aaron, this is completely normal. I love him.Now, slide the beads down to the finished end and repeat for the other side. Except do you see what I did? One side is not like the other one! Ai yi yi. I clearly got distracted by the cute man-hands crimping and forgot to add that one last tiny brass bead next to the crimp. I also didn’t realize this until I finished the entire necklace. I love it when that happens.Let’s take a break so Bebe can say “hi.” She’s been coming over off and on through this process and resting her head on my knee, my shoulder, the white board, begging to be petted. She’s our big girl that showed up one day, skin and bones and scared to death. Aaron worked with her to earn her trust and the rest is history. She doesn’t know a stranger. Have I told you how much I love that man?
Let’s make a wrapped bead link. I’m using 18g Artistic Wire in gunmetal bronze so it matches the chain. String your beeads onto the wire.Grab your round nose pliers and make a ninety degree bend in the wire.Bring the tail of the wire up and over the top of the pliers so it crosses in front of the other wire.Start wrapping the tail of wire around the long wire–as many times as you like.Sometimes it helps to hold the loop with chain nose pliers so it stays flat/in shape while wrapping. Trim the tiny, pokey/stabby part with wire cutters. Or tighten it inward with the chain nose pliers.Slide the bead against the finished wrapped loop and make another ninety degree bend in the opposite side of the wire.Trim the wire from the spool and start again with the wrapped loop technique.Split open the chain with two flat nose pliers. Open the link side to side on each piece of chain. Remove the sections so they are equal to the length of the beaded link.You can save those chain sections for a pair of earrings perhaps. I only did one beaded link as sort of a random surprise element to the necklace. Annnnnd possibly because I only had one bead left. Figured, I might as well use it!(insert big dramatic bead finale with tears and no tissue) I’m off to talk to my dogs and ask them if they want to celebrate.

Note: If you’ve not seen Romancing the Stone, that last bit will not make a lick of sense.Love,

Candie

(your hopeless romantic bead and craft blogger)

Filed Under: Beads, Jewelry, Tutorials

How to Make Easy Earrings with Wrapped Loops

April 22, 2014 By candiecooper 8 Comments

Want to instantly make yourself feel better? Whip up a sassy pair of earrings just for you. You deserve it. I promise. I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I make myself something, I feel guilty—I should give these as a gift, I should be adding these to my stash of things to sell, and so on. This is also not a new song on this blog. So…. I’m telling that little voice in my head I’ll do it next time. You can too! For now, it’s our turn! Let’s do this!

I actually made a trio of earrings with these supplies of which tutorials on will trickle out. For now, you only need what’s checked and listed. You might also want a couple bead caps (half domed beads that sit next to a focal bead).

P.S. Ergo plier sets are my fave.

String all the pieces onto a head pin. I’m using Beadalon decorative balled/star head pins, Jesse James Boho style beads (see JoAnn Fabrics) and brass bead caps. The bead is so decorative, I didn’t think I needed much else (note that for once in my life, I’m keeping it simple).

Make a 90 degree bend in the head pin just above the last bead cap.

Put the round nose pliers into the bend of the head pin and bring the end of the wire up and around the pliers and back under.

If you’re new to making jewelry, pliers are simply for forming wire or small amounts of sheet metal. We need a solid round loop at the top of the bead dangle so we have to use round tipped pliers to achieve that.

At this point, your loop can look like this or close to it. If this is your first time making jewelry, know that this wrapped loop technique is one of the hardest tricks in the book. Making the loop consistently sized takes a bit of practice.

Now, we’re going to grab the chain nose pliers (angled tips).

Put the loop in the jaws of the pliers and now twist the end of the wire round and round just above the bead. My wraps are always messy. If you want perfect, you came to the wrong blog. Trim any excess wire with wire cutters.

Open up the kidney ear wire and hang the beaded dangle in the front opening.

Use the round nose pliers to pinch the opening shut. You don’t have to do this if you want to make lots of beaded dangles and change them out. If I’m selling earrings, I close the loop because inevitably those bead balls will make a run for it. Probably start a new bead colony or something. Plus your customers will be really happy if they aren’t messing with runaway bead dangles. But, why am I talking about customers? We’re keeping these for ourselves, right? With that….

They lived happily ever after….(“they” being us and the sassy new earrings).

THE. END.

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

How to Make A Statement Necklace with Resin Chain and Beads

March 27, 2014 By candiecooper 6 Comments

Have you seen the resin chains at Hobby Lobby? I like them so much because they are reminiscent of Bakelite. They are bold and bright, fun for spring fashion, but how do you transform them into jewelry pieces? Here is one easy idea from me to you with love.

P.S. Sorry in advance for my color tint issues. I’m just not that savvy with my photo edits (YET!), but I’ll get there. Thanks for hanging in with me.

Basic supplies for this necklace are: chain nose pliers, wire cutters, 2, 7″ chain pieces, 7″ strand of Jesse James Beads, silver seed beads, 2 12mm jump rings, Beadalon duet clasp, 49 strand .018 nylon coated beading wire and #2 crimp tubes.

String the beads onto the beading wire.

Followed by 2, #2 crimp beads.

It’s so important that the crimp beads match the beading wire. Too big of crimp beads equals potentially-embarrassing-beads-crashing-to-the-floor scene. Never good.

Now string 20 silver seed beads onto the wire. Don’t be like me and mix and match your silver seed beads (see in the bag), thinking, I won’t care if I have to pick out the same colored ones. I do care, past self. That was a bad idea.

Ok, so now we have 2 crimps and 20 seed beads.

Loop the tail of wire through the end of the chain and back through the crimp beads, creating a seed bead loop. Now, you might have a couple questions….

1) Why are you using 2 crimp beads?

A) Because of the flat crimping technique and the large beads, I want to add double the security.

2) Why the seed bead loop?

A) See the splits in the chain? The seed beads add a bit of thickness (and design aesthetic is a bonus) so the wire can’t sneak out of the split. This gets us out of another potentially embarrassing moment. I’ve had jewelry break on me in front of people and it’s SO humiliating. I always say, “who made this anyway!?!?” with a big smile and a wink.

Slide the two crimp beads up next to the seed beads to cinch up the loop.

Use your chain nose pliers to smash the crimp beads down. That’s right, I said smash.

Slide the big colorful beads up, threading the tail through the first bead and trim away the excess.

Now, scoot all the beads over towards our crimped end. Trim the wire so you have 4″ approximately.

String 2 crimp beads and 20 seed beads. Run the tail of wire through the chain, down through the crimps and first bead, pull out all the slack in the beaded section. This can take some finagling. Use your chain nose pliers to tug on the end of the wire to help remove the slack.

Looks good! I use the seed bead loop for so many designs. It is my beady lasso of sorts.

Let’s finish’er up! Open a jump ring with chain nose pliers–from side to side.

Connect one end of the duet clasp to the end of the chain.

Close the ring so it’s nice and snug.

Repeat for the opposite side. It’s a cute little clasp pair, don’t you think?

Praise the Lord, we made it! A burst of color for you! I’m so excited!

And here I am wearing it so you can see the full look and how it hangs.

Expect more resin chain projects here. I only bought every color they had. Have you made anything with them? I wanna see!

Happy day!

XO.

Candie

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

How to String a Bracelet

March 20, 2014 By candiecooper 12 Comments

Are you ready for your life to be changed forever? Here is a tutorial I created this afternoon to explain how you can transform a pile of beads into a beautiful bracelet. It’s to kick off my first ever classes at Beadfest Philly in April. I’m so excited!!! It only took a mug of chicken soup, 2 raspberries, a cup of coffee, piece of fruit leather and a little chocolate for me to pull it together. I hope you find it a useful resource and something you want to share with your friends and family. And if you live in the Philly area, I hope you’ll come take a class with me at Beadfest.

Let’s get rollin’!

These are the basic materials needed. Before I forget, this post is brought to you by Jesse James Beads and Beadalon. They both help keep the lights on in my studio.

Back to the materials: Wire cutters, crimping pliers, 49 strand .018 nylon coated beading wire, crimp beads, beads and a sparkly Upper Clasp.

One thing that is so very important: the crimp beads must correspond to the wire diameter. Look at the bottom of the wire spool–it says use with crimp bead #1 or crimp tube #2. The crimp bead and tube packages will be marked with #__.

I promise, I’m not making this stuff up.

I always use 49 strand .018 Beadalon wire for my stringing projects. It’s so versatile and can hold the big chunky beads with no problemo. The Jesse James Beads were strung (almost) exactly like they were on the wire. I added a few tiny 4mm glass beads in the middle and at the end. The nice thing about JJB is they come in 7″ strands. My wrist is 7.5ish so by the time I strung the beads and included the clasp length in the total bracelet length, I had a perfectly sized bracelet.

Row of beads length + clasp width + approx 1/4″ for wire connections = your bracelet length

When you are happy with the bead section, string one crimp bead followed by one end of the clasp.

Run the tail of wire back through the crimp bead and slide it up next to the clasp. Leave a little room for the clasp to move freely.

Crimping pliers have two openings in the jaw–the “U” shape and the “EYE.” That’s what I call them at least. First, hold the wires so everything stays in place and put the crimp bead in the “U” shape. Clinch the crimping pliers together to mold the crimp bead into a “U” shape.

Turn the crimp bead 90 degrees and place in the “EYE” shape. Clinch again so it folds the crimp bead over (kinda like a squashed “C”).

Slide all the beads to the clasp/crimped end of the bracelet and cut the wire from the spool so you have an 1.5″ or so to work with.

I string with the spool attached so I don’t waste wire. You can pre-cut the wire too. For me, that’s just too much of a commitment though (laughing).

Repeat for the other side, stringing a crimp bead and the second part of the clasp. Run the tail of wire through the crimp bead and pull out all the slack. Not so tight that the beads can wiggle a bit though.

Crimp again as you did before. It’s helpful to put the flush side of the crimping plier up against the beads (see arrow above).

Now cut the tail of excess wire. Check twice that you have the right wire and cut once (ancient bead stringing secret).

And that my dear friends, is all there is too it! Are your ready to get this bead stringing party started or what?! Hokey Pokey time!!!

Now they are doing the loco-motion! Woot-woot!

Here they could be doing a little line dancing or the funky chicken dance.

No wait. They are doing the Macarena.

Heyyyyy Macarena! These beads came to play, y’all.

Speaking of party….guess what? I’ve got a little giveaway for you!

This is a beginning bead stringing kit! It has Beadalon wire, crimping pliers and crimp beads along with the infamous Jesse James Beads below. It will also include a sparkly Upper Clasp like the one on my bracelet above.

Is that Macarena song stuck in your head too? Mine too. Sorry about that!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy entering and thanks for showing the like love to these dear sponsors!

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

Fanciful 5 Minute Ring

April 6, 2012 By candiecooper 1 Comment

Plaid's Inspired Classics acrylic droplet charms plus one Ring Bling ring with loop.

(find these components at Joann Fabrics)

Pick your power color.

Attach 5 droplets to one jump ring connected to the loop on the ring. Repeat until you have no more droplets.

Wear it.

Filed Under: Get Crafty, Jewelry, Tutorials

My Mom’s Cheeseball Recipe

September 24, 2011 By candiecooper 1 Comment

I can't decide if it was more fun eating the above or listening to my mom explain how she made it so I could tell you lovely readers. My mom doesn't measure so much. We all know this and that is why she gets assigned food at family gatherings. There is no questions, because you already know ahead of time that she makes a mean cheeseball, loaded veggie tray, or beautiful salad. She also comes up with super fun group craft projects. Those are your options and we love her for it.

So last Friday, I hosted a birthday party for my friend. It was a lovely night! The next day, I was nibbling on leftover chili and cheeseball and thought, I need to take a picture of this cheeseball for the blog. You see, if you were to turn that cheeseball around you would see half of it is gone. Ravaged, really. I now know why these are only made for celebrations because I would eat the whole dang thing myself. I found a similar recipe here or you can read on to see tidbits from the phone call to my mom, Jean.

*adding my mom's comments in ( )

1 pkg cream cheese (I don't use generic for this–I get the real Philly kind. Of course it's a lot easier if it's softened. I just set the cream cheese out and worked on gluing some magnets for Kid-O-Rama (a big kids creative event happening the next day that she helps with).)

8 oz finely shredded cheese (The mixed one, cheddar and..she or I can't remember. The finely shredded cheese is the nuts! We used to have to shred it by hand.)

minced onion (But I had some left over green onions from the salad you made the other night at our house so I used those. That's what made it really good.)

2 tbsp milk (But, I didn't have any milk, so I used a little water.)

Worcestershire sauce (I'm not sure how much—a few shakes.)

Chopped pecans

Put the milk and minced onion in a bowl and let it sit until onion is softened. Add cream cheese, cheese and Worcestershire sauce and mix. Put mixture on a bed of saran wrap and form into a ball. Sprinkle with nuts. Refridgerate.

Me at the end, "That's it?!?" She says, "wellll, you can add some chopped ham if you want. Sometimes I do that." I guess I don't get out much when it comes to making cheeseballs.

That's me and my mom with our spiced cider. We love spiced cider.