Christmas bling is well and truly happening at our house!
I thought you might enjoy making these crystal decorations. Their gorgeousness belies their simplicity, and they make a stunning homemade gift.
For each decoration, you’ll need:
- 1 large 12-14mm large clear crystal*
- 1 large 8-10mm medium clear crystal*
- 2 small 6mm small crystals in either red or green
- 4 small flat spacer crystals
- 2 x 2″ silver plate headpins
- hanging ribbon or hook
- round-nosed pliers
- flat-nosed pliers
- wire cutter
Note: the 10mm – 14mm crystals can sometimes be tricky to track down. Please substitute freely depending on what you can source. I used vintage Swarovski from my personal stash.
Step 1: Onto one head pin, slide a spacer, followed by the largest crystal, then another spacer. Bend the top of the head pin into a loop following our earlier instructions here (follow the directions for the green earrings in the second half of the post)…
Step 2: Using the cutters, carefully trim away the head of the second pin. Turn one end of the wire into a loop. Thread on in this order: coloured crystal – spacer – medium crystal – spacer – coloured crystal. Carefully turn a loop at the other end.
Step 3: Open the loop on the large crystal by twisting it slightly to the side. Never open a loop by uncurling it, as that weakens the wire…
Step 4: Add the second piece, then close up the open loop by twisting back gently…
Step 5: Add a hanging ribbon or hook…
Finished! I like to give these away in small organza bags, but they also make a nice addition to the wrapping of a larger gift. I’m currently working on a way to hang these from our dining room light fitting – I’ll let you know how I go!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Lovely! It looks like it will be a very blingy Christmas at your place this year.
Very elegant Celia 😊
I used to make jewellery many years ago. It’s great fun to do. Celia, you are a lady of so many talents and everything you do is so beautiful. Happy Christmas to you and your family:)
So beautiful, Celia, you are very clever with your hands! I’m sharing your post with a dear friend who is making jewellery too. I think she’d love this.
my goodness! Gorgeous and I will let you have at it :)
Lovely Celia and thank you for the tutorial. I do love sparkles. We have a good bead shop in Perth only a few suburbs away from me. I will make a few of these but I am a little butterfingered so who knows.
You would have a field day at the trimmings market here – I took a friend on Monday who makes jewellery and handbags and she went bonkers in there. She kept looking at me saying why aren’t you buying all this stuff? Well to me it is stuff – I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with any of it.
PS I like the idea of your decorations hanging form the light fitting :)
The best online bead shop I have located is in the USA. Firemountain Gems. They are great to deal with, have a massive range of stuff and ship quickly.
Regards
Wow! These would be lovely on a tree or on a bow. You are so clever!!
Celia, as always a fabulous tutorial. These are just beautiful. I think I may have been a bowerbird in a previous life, I’m so easily distracted by bling…. oooooh look, something shiny!! xx
Hi Celia,
I would like to thank you for the many happy hours I have spent reading your blog and for introducing me to so many other bloggers, although it has reached the stage when I am considering doing nothing else apart from reading and absorbing the blogs!
I have noticed, with interest, your blogs on sourdough bread. I have a culture that I have kept alive for twelve years and because, these days, I don’t bake more than once a week I have found a way of being able to feed my yeast without wasting the surplus! I use my sandwich maker to make crackers without the addition of salt or anything else. I think the sourness of the culture give the crackers a great flavour and my husband (the only one home) and various visiting children and grandchildren love them.
Wishing you a very happy and joy filled December and a healthy and prosperous new year.
Kind regards,
Merle Mosse
Lovely Celia. These will sparkle beatifully.:-) And a wonderfuly blingy Christmas to you and all your family. M x
These are simple, yet so beautiful. I’m going to see where I can find such pretty crystals.
Eva, thank you! I actually looked on the net to see if there was a similar tutorial but couldn’t find one. Lots of online stores selling Swarovski crystals and since writing this I’ve made very nice decorations using a 12mm large crystal and 8mm medium ones. It’s very flexible!
These look good Celia. I wonder if you could strip the shade from an old lampshade and hang the crystals from the wire inner fitting to make a hanging decoration. Add a few ribbons or streamers and (possibly) Bob’s your uncle.
Twice. Pete has two uncle Bobs, one on each side of the family. :) that’s a very good idea, thanks! x
Your talents never end Celia! I feel like I am wasting away as I used to craft more before having the boys. Maybe someday things will settle down and we can have at it again. Right now my crafting involves paper, crayons, markers, glue, glitter glue…the boys at least LOVE arts and crafts time. I’ll have to step up their game soon.
Stunning…beautiful…just like you! This is not something I’ve done for years. Actually decades. I remember a time at secondary school when it was fashionable to wear a small stud in one ear and a long dangly earring in the other (gosh, I must have been 16 or 17, as I wouldn’t have been allowed to wear dangly earrings unless I was in the 6th Form of my pretty strict convent school!) and we used to make earrings and swap with each other. What fun :)
Just to tell you that I post my IMK of December.
:):):):)
Kisses!!
Gorgeous! Our tree is going up today – our last Christmas in this house! Bittersweet.
Beautiful.
They must look so pretty at night with fairy lights.
Looking at the photos again, it occurred to me that they would look lovely hung round a glass candle holder at nighttime – it would be like gazing into a log fire with their sparks and flares.
Crystals and Jaffa Cointreau Cream. All home made and a beautiful Christmassy tradition. All thanks to you Celia
Simply stunning! :)
Just beautiful and so festive. I love the colours. You are a woman of many talents, Celia xx
There’s an artist within you, Celia. These crystals are beautiful, as are your breads & rolls, and your many chocolates. As Charlie just said, you have many talents. :)
Stunning decorations. Emerald green is my favourite colour. I just wanted to let you know that I have posted my IMK for this month. Best wishes. Emma xx
These are so beautiful, Celia. xx
Beautiful!
Beautiful! I can just imagine how they sparkle and spin as the light hits them. I have some homemade Christmas ornaments as well on my IMK post this month. They are not quite as sparkly, but were easy to make with the little ones. Happy Advent to you Celia!
these are beautiful celia. you are so clever!
Hi Celia
They are such beautiful decorations and I can imagine how wonderful your tree must look this year, I do hope I get to see it before it is too late. thank you so very much for the very kind and thoughtful way you included me in the bling of you Christmas . Much love xxxx
The ornaments are beautiful and I hope to make them for next Christmas, are they expensive to make?
It will depend entirely on the crystals you choose! :) But as a ballpark, a large 14mm Swarovski round crystal with AB coating at will cost you $2.50.
Thank you so much