DIY Customized Christmas Stockings
This year I decided to purchase matching stockings for our family. Every year in the past we have hung kid-friendly stockings featuring each child’s favorite character such as Lightning McQueen, Winnie the Pooh and Tinkerbell. With the kids getting older and our family growing larger this year I moved their kiddie stockings to their rooms and upgraded our living room decor.
Now I’ve hung these customized, yet, matching stockings above the fireplace.
While browsing Hobby Lobby I found stockings with the same matching design in green and red. To mix it up a bit I purchased the green stockings for the boys and the red stockings for the girls. When hanging matching stockings personalization is mandatory so the kids can tell which is theirs.
Supplies Needed:
- Stocking
- Wooden Letter
- Paint (I used spray paint)
- Glitter
- Glue (must work with material of stocking and wood)
I was able to find all the supplies I needed at my local Hobby Lobby, however I am sure any craft store and possibly even Walmart has everything you need.
Since our stockings have golden Christmas trees as the design I bought gold glitter spray paint for the letters to match.
When I first attempted to paint the wooden letters the gold glitter did not show up very well. I had to first paint them with a coat of white and let them dry. Then use the gold glitter spray paint as a final top coat.
I recommend laying the wooden letters on cardboard to paint them and sliding them slightly after each coat so they don’t stick to the surface while drying. The base coat is only needed to enhance your color, if you are painting them a solid dark color you may only need one coat.
I let the letters dry fully for more than a day before attempting to glue them to the stockings.
Our stockings are made out of polyester so I was able to easily find superglue that listed both the material of the stockings and wood as surfaces it was safe to use on. This matters since some glues will eat away at certain fabrics while other glues may not stick at all. You don’t want the letters falling off while the stockings are hanging or Santa is filling them.
A little glue goes a long ways… Read the bottle carefully to see how long it takes your glue to set. You may need to leave your stockings laying flat for a few hours. Our glue was rather instant but to be better safe than sorry we pressed each letter firmly and held for a full minute then left the stockings laying for an hour before hanging.
I slanted the letters slightly so when the stockings are hanging each initial appears straight. Plus some of our letters were too large to fit perfectly vertical.
The entire family loves them and they were simple to customize!
Do you hang stockings in your home? Are they matching stockings or does everyone pick their favorite?
These are beautiful stockings!
Thank you, Patty. They were simple to personalize and the kids love them. I’ve always wanted matching stockings in the living room.
in my family wee all have stockings that are special to us, but this is perfect for when someone brings home an unexpected guest as something quick but still special…
We used to each have special stockings hanging in the living room but now I made a special place within the kids’ rooms to hang them there.
Beautiful and looks easy to do. What a great gift idea for those that have everything! Tweeted & Pinned!
Thank you for sharing, Jamie. I was pleasantly surprised at how they turned out and how easy it was.
Those are absolutely gorgeous. What a great job!
Great post and idea. I would have never thought about putting the wooden letters on stockings at all. They look fabulous! Pinned also.
These are beautiful and so easy to make. This would make a great teachers gift, thank you!
These are adorable. I love the idea but we have the same stockings we use every year. I have this huge pile of stockings – the kids pick and choose which ones. I use the same Santa one I have used since I was a young child 😉
We have too, every other year. I still have the big pile of stockings and although each kid has one hanging on their bedroom door or in their room, I still have a pile. LOL. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them either. Some the kids made, some are their very first stocking or something special. I think with the new family living together this Christmas it was just time for new stockings but it doesn’t mean we are getting rid of the old by any means.
this is our first year since Shae’s been born that we have matching stockings. pinned this