Presents - sorted!

My parents have always made a big fuss about Christmas. They spend far too much on presents even though my brother and I are all grown up and living away from home - my dad even buys presents for my dog!

The problem with giving gifts when you get older is, people become much harder to choose presents for, because they already have everything they want. My parents used to hassle me every year to decide what I wanted for my "big present", when I really don't need anything else. And I'm rubbish at finding the perfect gift for other people.

So this year I made things much easier, in two ways.

Firstly I created a wish list on Amazon with everything I could think of, and emailed the link to my mum. She loves the fact that she could just order stuff for me online in the comfort of her own home at 10pm without having to trawl through town of a Saturday not being able to find anything I'd like.

As a result, I got several awesome books on polymer clay on Christmas Day, and spent much of the afternoon leafing through them and going "Wow! That looks awesome, I could make that!" I'm expecting to have some cool new lines available soon, inspired by the projects in the books. Yay!

And secondly, I gave handmade jewellery as presents this year. I figured a nice unique piece designed especially for that person would mean much more than the usual potted plant or pair of slippers or gift voucher or whatever.

I haven't actually made jewellery for family members before so I was a bit nervous as to whether they'd like it and concerned that I might look a bit "cheap" (even though I spent quite a lot on materials).

So here's what I made (click on the pictures to enlarge them). I decided to buy beads rather than make polymer clay ones, because I didn't think my style of clay work would really suit the type of jewellery I wanted to make.

For my boyfriend's mum - a necklace and earrings set with some gorgeous shimmery green glass beads, a green foiled glass focal bead with rose pattern, and colourless and pale green Swarovski crystals.

Each bead is individually linked to the next with sterling silver wire to make a beaded chain. The part of the necklace that rests on the back of the neck is a simple delicate silver chain (because the crystals aren't comfortable there, they can dig into your neck).

This was my first attempt at making my own ear wires, and I'm pleased with the way everything turned out.





For my mum - a necklace and bracelet set with blue glass beads, colourless Swarovski crystals and a blue foiled glass focal bead, made in the same way as the green necklace.

The bracelet is a simple silver chain, to which I added the crystals and blue glass beads as little charms.







For my grandmother - a necklace and bracelet set with pink and lavender Swarovski crystals and colourless Swarovski crystal flowers. Again I linked each bead individually using sterling silver wire.

It's hard to see from the photo, but the flowers sparkle beautifully and sometimes shine yellow or blue (you can see the blue in the picture).

They all seemed to like their presents!

Did anyone else give handmade gifts this year? How did it work out for you?