STOCKING UP for Christmas : a couple of cheap- n-'easy tutorials

I just happened to be in 

DOLLARAMA 

a couple of weeks ago and chanced upon a package of Christmas Stocking stickers which I thought I could use for miniatures. 

If I remember correctly,
there are are at least 16 stickers in the package. 

Of course the stickers were, 
far too shiny and  artificial looking, 
as they come in the package
however,
 I thought that if I tried covering them with fabrics, 
then they'd be usable.

I found an old Christmas tea towel 
in with my fabrics,
 and began experimenting with the stickers.
I was having a grand old time with this project, 
when suddenly
the thought occurred to me 
that perhaps the stocking stickers 
would make a good
CHRISTMAS TUTORIAL
for anyone else who might require 
some mini Christmas stockings.
Since I'd already made quite a few stockings
before I'd decided to write the tutorial,
 quite a few were already used up. 
Even so, 
the leftovers you see in the photo below,
  represent all the various sizes and shapes 
inside the package of stickers.  

  so-
here's what I did...

These stickers from 
DOLLARAMA,
come in either red or green, but either colour works,
 since they'll be completely covered over 
with a fabric of your choice. 

You can see that the stickers are composed of 
shiny foiled card on the front 
but backed by a thin and sticky foam.

For my first demonstration
I'm using the longest and simplest sock sticker 
in the package. 

There were 4 of this shape in my pack. 

I've chosen to use a medium weight tie silk
to cover this sticker.

For glue,
 I chose to use a permanent clear  adhesive, specifically designed for fabrics.

THIS GLUE doesn't Bleed through fabrics when it's allowed to get tacky, although you still have to be careful with it on very thin silks: AND 
it works Great on synthetic materials as well! 

An additional PLUS is that it won't dissolve the foam. 

Railroad modellers use it when constructing their complex landscape bases from pressed insulation foam which was why I started using it. 

Equally good is the 
FABRIC-TAC
( although it's a little more expensive)
 look for them at Walmart and/or Michael's

Step 1 

coat the TOP SURFACE of the stocking sticker
with the glue and let it get just a little tacky
and then place it face down onto the fabric

cut A GENEROUS allowance all around the stocking shape
as shown in the photo below

add small cuts from the outside in towards the sticker
leaving APPROXIMATELY
an 1/8th 'seam allowance' around the perimeter of the stocking form.

Add glue along the edge of the foam and onto the fabric itself
 START WITH THE FOOT 
then work your way up to the top of the form.
Begin by
pulling the fabric up around the foot to the back of the stocking.
This procedure takes the most time.
It is also the most messy and you'll need to constantly clean the glue and loose threads from your fingers as you go!
Cut away the excess fabric as needed
 but don't cut off too much! 

The back of the stocking is relatively unimportant to me, since it will be the side facing the fireplace,
which means that
I don't worry too much about what it looks like. 

  I focus more on keeping the front of the stocking  smooth and neat as I continue gluing 
and pulling the fabric taut at the back. 

The sharp points on the foot of the sock
means that the fabric needs to be pulled in 
a little  tighter 

Keep checking the front of the stocking as you are pulling and smoothing away the sharp points;
ensuring also 
that the sock doesn't become twisted or distorted in the process. 

Once you have finished gluing around the foot;
begin gluing the fabric up the leg of the stocking,
trimming away the excess fabric as you go.
I folded over one side of the leg of the sock and then overlapped and glued the opposite long flap onto it.  

Here was my finished fabric covered stocking 

Step 2

  Remove the foam inside the top of the sticker
This is achieved with a pair of sturdy tweezers,
 or needle nosed pliers. 

Insert the tool into the foam and begin
tearing and pulling the foam out  from the top 
of the sock
 to a depth of no more than 1/2 inch. 

 The remaining foam left inside,
will act as a support for whatever you insert.

The foam free cavity 
is now ready for the teeny tiny presents!

Step 3
PLAYING DRESS-UP! 

If you intend to hang your stockings onto a fireplace,
then it might be a good idea 
to sew or glue a loop to the top of the sock 
before 
you begin to add your decorative trims.  

To decorate this stocking 
I used some matching twisted cord,
 glued around the perimeter of the form.
Then I added a cuff of grosgrain ribbon around the top of the sock with some lace trim overlay. 

I decided to give this model a
"Romantic Victorian"
look.

I used metal NAIL DECALS to decorate this stocking along with
these peel and stick cameo decals.

After a little bit of holly and extra lace:
the stocking was finished! 

Below are the same stocking sticker shapes
which I covered using sections of an
old cotton tea towel

 Here are some of the other Stocking shapes
from the same package

and
a CURLY TOE STICKER

with gold "jingle bell" beads 
on the curly toe and cuff

fyi

The CURLY TOE Sticker 
was the
MOST DIFFICULT 

shape to work with:
 but

for a repeat of the sticker stocking tutorial,

I'm going to use the nefarious 
curly toe sticker,

 as outlined above.

this time with 100% cotton fabric.

 I cut out a rough shape from the fabric.

I added glue to the front face of the stocking shape
and allow the glue to get a little tacky

I pressed the sticker face down 
onto the back of the fabric

I Snipped small cuts around the foot of the stocking 
to within an 1/8th around the form: 

I put the glue onto the sides of foam back
 and onto the fabric. 
Beginning at the foot,
I pulled the fabric taut around the form; 
making additional tiny cuts as needed,
smoothing down the sharp points around the foot 
and toe as I went along. 

the curly toe is a challenge 
and it DOES take some extra time, 
but just "stick" with it! 

I used tweezers to help pull the fabric snuggly 
around the curly toe point

Front side

Backside = Ugg
DON'T LOOK!  😖

okay, now for the FUN PART! 

For this stocking
I'm using
squiggly Nail stickers
Organza ribbon
narrow Silk ribbon
and a pale pink loopy trim

I decided to ruche the narrow silk ribbon.

To ruche the silk ribbon;
grab a thread from the center of the silk and gently
pull and gather it along its length. 
It forms a lovely ruffle! 

Initially I was going to use the ruched silk along the top edge of the stocking
but changed my mind 
and gathered it into a rose shape instead.
fyi
If you're using self adhesive nail stickers,
they'll need to be GLUED onto the
cloth with Fabric Hi-Tak
otherwise
they will eventually dry out 
and begin to  lift away from the fabric. 

I glued white cording to the outline of the sock, 
then made a cuff of pink organza ribbon and glued the loopy pink trim to the bottom edge of the organza ribbon. 
I trimmed the top edge of the stocking with more cording, tied a pink bow for the corner and used the darker pink ruched ribbon as roses with two leaves under it. 
For a bit of glitz I used gold nail decals as embroidery on the toe, 
on heel and on the organza cuff.

Then the stocking was stuffed with Christmasy stuff!

The tiny package is a foil wrapped flat bead 
which I ribboned with pink metallic nail tape.
The snowman is a polymer nail decal,
as is the red and white candy cane.
Most of the NAIL ART that I've featured here,
was purchased from 
NAIL ART FAIRY
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/nailartfairy?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=515243472&section_id=1&page=31#items
there are THOUSANDS of nail appliques 
for you to choose from- 
SO HAVE FUN EXPLORING! 
⛄️
The green candy cane is a paper clip

I saw the paperclip candy canes featured on a blog 

a number of years ago. 

unfortunately

 can't remember whose blog it was

These are easy and fun to make. 

 The Paper Clips 

were purchased at a local dollar store.
I used the red and green ones

This is how you cut them apart.
Trim both of the cut ends of the cane
 to the length you want, 
then bend the rounded end in lightly 
using a pair of pliers.

You'll get 3 Candy canes from 1 paper clip,
but save your offcuts
to use as peppermint sticks!

Below are some repurposed resin Christmas earrings 
which I recently found at a thrift store.  
I clipped off their posts and used them to fill 
some of my Christmas Sticker Stockings
as already seen in the photos above.

                                           END of TUTORIAL #1

TUTORIAL # 2 is for CHRISTMAS WREATHS

 I REALLY enjoy making Christmas Wreaths
Here are a few which I've constructed in the past:

the Ball Wreath below was a gift to Fatima for the front door of her VITORIA Christmas dollhouse.

The next one is a Frosted Holly/ berry wreath using holly wire from my stash

And this one is an overstuffed 
APPLE /WALNUT wreath using preserved lycopodium as its base

The one I am going to construct for this particular tutorial is a really simple evergreen wreath
using basic holiday evergreen wire.

I loosely form the size and shape of a wreath,
then thread through the form with a second circlet of evergreen wire to bulk it out.  

first layer above

second layer below

This wreath is approximately 1 1/2 inches diameter

I cut a length of silk ribbon (about 7 inches +/-) 
to wrap around the circumference of the wreath. 

I put a little glue on the end of the silk ribbon

Then I wrapped the ribbon over the frame and back it onto itself

then I wound the ribbon loosely around the wreath
until I returned to the start. 

I gave the wreath a light trim,
then I removed some of the holly leaves from the holly wire and glued them into the evergreen, by tucking them under the silk ribbon using the same Hi-Tak fabric glue to keep them in place. 
fyi
I'm using up what I already have on hand,
 but you could just as easily use 
a holly leaf paper punch 
or hand cut your own leaves from folded paper . 

Since the colours of the holly and the evergreen,
are nearly the same,
I decided to paint the leaves a lighter green for more contrast.
I used a Leaf Green acrylic paint and a tiny brush and carefully painted each leaf of the holly. 

Once the leaves were painted,
I added the Christmas coloured
NO HOLE beads 
which Fatima had recently given to me.
(I think she bought them at Michaels) 

Gluing the berries onto the wreath:

I first painted the leaves with a light coat of 
MOD PODGE 
then 
still using the wet paint brush,
I lifted the berries with the brush tip and placed them onto the still damp Podge at the base of the holly.  

Using the wet brush as a tool to pick up and transfer the beads to the wreath, 
worked BETTER and FASTER
than trying to apply them with a pair of tweezers. 

WALNUTS:
To add some additional texture to the wreath,
I used dried Cardamom seeds
purchased from the spice section of the supermarket.
I broke them in half using pressure from my fingers and then I glued the halves onto the wreath
with the
fabric adhesive. 

after looking at a photo of the wreath
I decided to lighten the holly up a little more by using a thin wash of
yellow fabric paint mixed with water. 

I carefully went over each leaf once again
with the paint and water mixture.

Lastly
 I added a silk bow to the top of the wreath
 and then
 


  It was Done! 

Below are a couple more
Christmas Wreaths. 
The resin Santa heads were removed 
from a cheap pair of seasonal earrings

I made the diameters of both wreaths
wide enough to accommodate the Santa heads.
Then I threaded the evergreen wire through the existing metal loop 
on the top of the hat
 to secure the heads to the frame. ❄️

❄️ ❄️  The Santa wreaths measure about 2 inches across
and were super quick and easy to do!

❄️

❄️ Well, this brings us to the end of 
Tutorial # 2
 I'll probably be making a few more wreath since I'm currently on a roll 
and perhaps I'll make some Christmas swags too-

❄️I'll keep you posted IF I do!
❄️
so until we meet again❄️
❄️❄️

hO hO hO! 
❄️


elizabeth