During my daily rounds of the Youtubes looking for cool DIY videos on how to improve my shooting ability and set ups, I found this helpful one from Photigy. In this video, Alex shows us all how to do a jewelry shoot with very simple, inexpensive materials. Many of which we probably all have laying around the house. I've done similar set ups like this in the past, but this one takes it to a much simpler level, and even though he's shooting jewelry, you could use this set up for a lot of different items like toys, tech items, food, etc.
Good stuff!