The holiday season is all about giving, yet it has been a tough year economically and budgets are tight. Fortunately, Rings & Things offers a voluntary donation program for employees where a set dollar amount is deducted from each paycheck. At the end of the year, owners Russ & Dee match the deducted funds and give the money to charity. Each employee chooses which charity to support. So, for example, just $2 per bi-weekly paycheck translates into a $100 donation!

Yesterday our HR manager sent out the grand total: through this humble program, Rings & Things employees donated more than $10,000 to charity in 2011! It is really exciting to see a those few dollars we end up not even missing each month add up to something so substantial.  The nonprofits selected this year include:

Spokesman Review Christmas Fund ~ 2nd Harvest Food Bank ~ ACLU Foundation ~ Alzheimers Association ~ Anna Ogden Hall ~ Cancer Patient Care ~ American Childhood Cancer Organization ~ Doctors without Borders ~ KSFC ~ KYRS ~ Living Tongues Institute ~ Las Hermanas ~ Meals on Wheels ~ Planned Parenthood ~ SCRAPS ~ SNAP ~ Spokanimal ~ Union Gospel Mission ~ Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery ~ YFA Connections

Christmas is just days away, but to make them easier to find I also wanted to post a recap of the 12 Days of Christmas Jewelry Designs. There’s always next year to plan for, plus many of the techniques are adaptable to any occasion!

Day 1 – Swarovski Crystal Christmas Tree Earrings

Day 2 – Bottle Cap Baubles

Day 3 – Lampwork Glass Bead Zipper Pulls

Day 4 – Beaded Snowflakes

Day 5 – Swarovski Crystal Holiday Light Charms

Day 6 – Family Keepsakes

Day 7 – Faux Stained Glass Soldered Ornaments

Day 8 – Mini Ceramic Cookies Charm Bracelet

Day 9 – Hinged Picture Frames

Day 10 – Velvet Ribbon and Bead Bookmarks

Day 11 – Stamped Metal Gift Tags

Day 12 – Brass Fairy Door Sandwich Pendants

Happy holidays everyone! ~ Cindy

Me. Want. Cookies! When I was in junior high, one of my mom’s friends actually paid me to make Christmas cookies for her cookie exchange each December. I was thrilled to be earning money. She paid me well, but was still getting an amazing bargain considering how many hours I spent rolling dough and piping frosting.

I still like baking, but chocolate chip is about as fancy as it gets. Detailed little gingerbread houses are a thing of the past – or a thing for jewelry.  Check out these adorable little ceramic Christmas cookie beads:

Ceramic cookie houses with Swarovski crystal bicones.

Amongst our rather large selection of  hand-painted Peruvian ceramic beads I also found cute little ceramic gift boxes and ornaments:

Presents!

These little guys would make great earrings.

There are a many other cuties available, but I digress. Today’s Christmas jewelry project is a charm bracelet using the cookie beads and sparkly little crystals.

Supplies Needed for Charm Bracelet:

Charm bracelet with toggle clasp

Head pins – you can get away with using shorties, but longer are fine too.

Ceramic cookie beads

4mm Crystal Jam bicone mix (I used Karma Chameleon)

Metal spacer beads

Jump rings

Jewelry-making tool set

This design is a great opportunity to perfect your technique for making simple loops! Simply string beads on a pin, bend wire 90 degrees, trim the wire to about 4mm (1/6th of an inch), grab the very end of the wire with round-nose pliers and loop it back over to touch the base of the wire. The metal spacer beads are decorative, but they also help fill the ceramic bead holes.

The anatomy of a wire loop.

Assembly goes faster if you make a little production line out of it.

Once you have all the dangles made, group them together however you like and attach them to the bracelet using jump rings.  It seemed to be missing something, so I added a TierraCast gingerbread man charm and a fern green bicone drop as an accent near the clasp to finish my easy Christmas cookie charm bracelet.

Can't catch me!

And now I’m off to find some more cookies – edible ones this time! ~ Cindy

Swarovski crystal holiday lights

Hi bloglandia! Here is another sparkly design, courtesy of the Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements design team: holiday light charms! You need just four ingredients to make them:

9x6mm crystal teardrop beads

4mm rhinestone wheel beads

5mm round crystal beads

Head pins 

Simply stack the crystals on head pins and complete each charm with a simple loop or wrapped loop. The crystal lights can be used individually or en masse to create all sorts of jewelry:

Dangly Christmas light earrings are so festive!

Holiday light earrings are also cute with just one light bulb.

Or, instead of head pins, string the light pattern on a strand of beading cable for a necklace like this.

For easy charm bracelets, just add some lights to a toggle bracelet:

Chain bracelet with toggle clasp already attached.

Aren’t they de-light-ful? (Sorry, that’s the cold medicine talking!) Happy Friday! ~ Cindy