DIY Personalized Christmas Stocking

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While you can buy a large variety of Christmas stockings in the store sometimes it’s nice to add a more personalized touch. This year while pulling out the Christmas stockings I realized that Connors was getting a bit beat up and since this is Echo’s first Christmas she didn’t have a stocking at all! Obviously this was a situation that needed to be fixed. It’s not like I needed much of an excuse for a fun artsy project. This DIY personalized Christmas stocking project was a bit of an experiment with Dollar Store items and I’m really happy with the way they turned out!

In the past, I have ordered embroidered stockings, used iron patches or just bought pre-made stockings with cut designs. The girls have handmade crocheted stockings that one of their aunts made them but there really wasn’t enough time for such a large project this close to the holidays and they don’t make a lot of pre-made “Echo” stockings so DIY was the way to go!

DIY Personalized Christmas Stocking

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Supplies

The supplies for this project are pretty simple but since I have never tried this before I wasn’t sure what the best method would be. Our Dollar store has both colored, glittery glue sticks for a hot glue gun as well as an item called Tacky glue and some loose glitter. I probably could have found some foam craft paper if you prefer to ut out and glue letters too.

But, I wanted something with a bit of sparkle to it so I bought both the glittery glue sticks as well as the tacky glue and loose glitter. I also picked up three stockings, one to use as a tester and one for each of the pups! Ove all this brought the cost of this project to $6. Pretty good! And it would have been less if I had done some of this experimenting in the past. Of course, if you don’t already have a mini glue gun it might be a bit more. I highly suggest picking one up though as they are extremely useful to have on hand! We have used ours for quick repairs, school projects for the girls and a wide assortment of crafty fun.

Option 1

Option 2 (What I Ultimately Used)

Experiments

Since loose glitter is exceptionally messy I was really hoping that the glue stick method of lettering these stockings would work out well! However, I wasn’t entirely sure so I was really glad I bought an extra stocking to test on. For only $1 it seemed worth it rather than risk ruining one of the dog’s stockings! I always suggest having extra supplies on hand so that you can test different methods stress-free!

It turned out that the glitter glue sticks did work. The color showed up fairly well and there was a good bit of glitter in it so it shined nicely too! However, there were a few challenges with this method! For one, it was challenging to remove the glue sticks whenever you wanted to change colors. The easiest way was to just press the old gue out on a bit of cardboard but that was a big waste of glue. It was also challenging to get a nice design without a lot of excess glue strings (the bane of any glue gun project) or not making the letters look globby.

However, if you have a really steady hand and a lot of patience this method will work! I wasn’t entirely happy however so I decided to lay down some plastic and give the other method a try. This turned out to be a good idea since I am a lot more happy with the look this method gave.

Since the tacky glue bottle I bought came with a nicely tapered tip it was very simple to get a nice thick letter design. It was also far easier to control the glue which made the whole design look a lot neater! I also tried drawing out some extra designs and playing with a stencil but in the end, I just stuck with letters.

Directions for My Chosen Method – Option 2!

Lay down some plastic to try and contain the loose glitter. Odds are it will get all over you, the table and the house – maybe even the pets if they are curious sorts but…you can try. Yay glitter!
Before working with the glue I found it very useful to take my hand and smooth down the fur of the stocking so that it was all laying flat and in the same direction. For most stockings, this will be a downward swipe or two!
Cut the tip off your tacky glue tube with some strong scissors. Try not to cut off too much or your glue will come out too thick. Likewise, if you find the stream of glue too thin, don’t be afraid to take off a bit more. If your store stocks Elmer’s glue or another form of general school glue I expect it would work the same way.
Use the tip to draw out your letter design just like you would with a pencil.
Open your glitter and sprinkle a generous amount all over the glue. If you have more then one color you can create fun gradients by switching out the colors halfway through, you could even try to do every other letter by using a piece of paper to block the letters from each other as you sprinkled. Use a good bit of glitter to make sure that you cover the entire surface of the glue.
Allow your glue to dry.
Come back in a few hours or the next day depending on your glue and the thickness of your letters and tap and blow off the extra glitter. If you didn’t get glitter all over the place with the previous step, odds are you will now!
Display your DIY personalized Christmas stocking with pride and pointlessly try to get the extra glitter out of your house for the next 10 years. Or just live with it…glitter is fun!