I write a lot about using non-traditional materials to make jewelry, but this time I’m thinking more about using traditional handcrafted beaded jewelry in non-traditional ways! Christmas is a great time to pull out all the stops with your home decorations, and there’s no reason why you can’t use your bead jewelry skills and supplies to add some pizazz to your Christmas. Here are some ways you can use or display your bead jewelry in ways other than simply wearing it!

Present Beaded Jewelry – I’ve done this in the past, and it always makes a great impression. If you’re giving someone a beaded necklace or bracelet or even earrings as well as another give you can actually attach the jewelry to the outside of another wrapped present. I love to hang beaded bracelets off a wrapped wine bottle because the bracelet enhances how the gift looks (I usually tie it under a ribbon bow on top of the box) and it makes your gift really stand out. Instead of just being a wine bottle in a box it’s clearly two presents, and a piece of handmade beaded jewelry is one of those presents! It’s fun, it’s clever, and it really gets people talking about your jewelry at parties!

Use Your Beaded Jewelry for Garland – You can either make new garland with a bunch of left over beads or actually use beaded necklaces you’ve already made to decorate trees, tables, around candles or wherever you can lay or hang a necklace from! One year I made a bunch of red and green crystal necklaces for a Christmas craft show I was a member of. I only sold a few of those bead necklaces, so I came home and on a whim I placed them on across my Christmas tree branches at various heights. They made a darn fine beaded tree garland and I was able sell them as jewelry once my tree came down!

Use Large Hole Beads to Decorate Christmas Lights – I saw this done once at a holiday craft show and I have never seen it again. There was a small tree with traditional Christmas lights on it, but all the lights twinkled because someone had taken large holed crystal beads and placed them over the little bulbs! It was really quite stunning! I think you’d have to keep the beads in place with a drop of glue and I wouldn’t do it on very long strands of lights. You could simply put crystal beads on some of the lights on your tree, which would give it a fun and unique crafty feel!

Beaded Wine Glass and Hot Chocolate Mug Tags - You’ve probably seen those little wine glass charm tags advertised by now. They’re little beaded strands or wires with unique charms on them that you place around the stem of a wine glass so that everyone knows what glass is theirs. You could easily take beaded wire earrings and do something similar! This could even be a fun project for the kids: take some extra beads and some wire and have them make their own beaded drink tags for their hot chocolate mugs!

I’m sure there are lots of other ways you can use your beaded jewelry to decorate things other than yourself around Christmas! Let me know and send a photo if you’ve done some great Christmas decorating with your bead jewelry!