1. Spread out your work surface and place your cab or focal piece anywhere you like on your piece of LSS. You may move things around a bit until you see how you want it to go: off-centre, dead in the middle, or up in a corner. This is where you start to see your proportions. Be sure to round off your corners so they don't snag your thread. (And save the snippets!)
Hint: Use a dab of the glue stick to hold the cab while you make up your mind. You might want to do some preliminary sketching and adjusting, as well.
2. Trim your piece of LSS to the size you want, and save whatever is left. LSS is useable right down to the scraps (see below). If you decide later to add to the piece, LSS can be glued edge-to-edge. Once you are satisfied with the position of your cab, put a small dab of silicone glue on its back and press it down gently; You don't want glue protruding from under the cab.
Hint: A small drill might get through the silicone glue if it squishes out, but a needle will not. Even if you do want that slightly domed effect you get with over-pressing, you still need to make sure you don't have impenetrable glue right where you want to bead.
3. Give the glued cab a few minutes to set firmly. Start setting out your beads, thread your needle, draw your design on the LSS, color in the areas around the cab, mark where you want to put in any accent beads (all the while making sure you don't dislodge the cab!), have a cuppa, or play tiddlywinks. Cabs glued onto LSS are usually ready to be beaded within 15 to 20 minutes. (We who are terminally impatient may begin within 10 minutes, but only if we are very careful not to unseat the cab.)
Hint: If you dread threading needles, thread several at once so the chore is done for a while. On the subject of thread, use any length you feel is comfortable (I generally use between 32 and 36" or 80-90 cm). Put a knot or two at the end.
4. Once the cab is set, you can start — usually by beadign around the cab first. Bringing your needle up from underneath a half-bead's width away from the cab, put 4 beads on the needle, push them down to the end of the thread, then lay them down carefully along the side of the cab. Your needle needs to go back down through the LSS at the end of the row of 4, as they lie flat—and as Lace always says. "Don't crowd the beads!". Go back up to 2 beads in, go through those 2 and add 4 more beads ad infinitum or to the end of your line. Run your needle and thread through your finished row, and start the next row a half-bead's width over. You can change bead colors, sizes, and textures as you work, either spontaneously or by design.
Hint: As you work around the cab, you want to keep a nice, trim fit—and therin lies the beauty of Czech beads; You can rummage around in a small pile and find exactly what you need to fit that or any other curve.
For all the beginning beaders I have confused, please see Lace and Jackie's book if you need more help. They explain it waaayy better than I do, and it has lots of drawings and designs.
∗A cabochon is a term of jewelers referring to a domed shape cut finish, usually seen in semi-precious stones; in beading, it is a more general reference for a focus piece to be beaded around.