I have been making jewelry for years and often give my finished jewelry pieces as gifts, so you would think my gift recipients would get tired of receiving jewelry year after year. This is so not the case. In fact, years ago I remember purposely not making any jewelry for anyone when I was working on my holiday gift list, and boy, I found out how much they appreciated the jewelry. They were shocked and a little disappointed that I didn’t give them any that year.

So, now I try to keep that in mind and balance the jewelry with other items I make as well as purchase. Here are some links to tutorials for jewelry items you can make quickly and are always very popular:

The Tin Cup Necklace is a classic. Plus, you can make this using all kinds of different beads depending on what you might have in your bead stash and the personal taste of whomever you are making it for.

Don’t know the wrist size of your recipient? Not a problem…memory wire is the answer because it is one size fits all. Here is a link to a tutorial on how to make memory wire jewelry.

If you are not 100% sure on the taste of the person you are making jewelry for, you can never go wrong with pearls. I have a slew of pearl earring projects here for you.

Make a dangle necklace. You just need some chain, head pins, and a small number of beads to make something like this Lovely Lapis Dangle Necklace.

If you can squeeze in an afternoon of concentrated jewelry making, you can easily knock off a number of gifts on your holiday list.