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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 9:24 pm
I am on a very tight budget and I love handmade stuff on holidays. This year I wanted new Christmas stockings for the family. I found exactly what I wanted online. Unfortunately they cost $80-$100 each!!! Here is what they look like:
If I paid that much for 4 stockings I would probably be divorced by next Christmas. So being a self taught sewer I decided to make my own. With only about $50 in fabric and embellishments I made these:
They actually turned out better than I imagined. A few weeks ago I discovered the joy of glass glitter. I bought some clear glass ornaments at Michael's for just a few bucks per box and have been glittering designs on them. The glitter is so sparkley and gives it a nice sugared look. Anybody else here have holiday craft ideas?
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 10:07 pm
ooh they are wonderful!
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 10:21 pm
Wow Tera! Those are fantastic! Do you have pics of the glass ornaments? I've been thinking about doing something similar with the kids but adding dangling beads as well. I'm just not sure how fragile the glass ornaments are and if they'd hold up to kid handling.
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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 10:39 pm
Thanks Pamy and Wargod! When I showed them to my DH he said, hmmm.. that curly thing is weird. He just doesn't get it. The ornaments are actually pretty thick glass. Much more 'beefy' than your average glass ornaments you buy at Wal-Mart. I even dropped one on my wood floor and it didn't break. I love the idea of dangling beads on the ornaments. The more glitzy the better, I think. I will post pics of the ornaments tomorrow. (they are still drying).
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Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 11:03 pm
Tera - tell DH that he can have the old style of stocking, which is still perfectly shaped for a lump of coal. 
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 11:08 pm
Thanks Tera, I'd love to see them! Every year I get my neices and nephews over and we make Christmas crafts for their parents for gifts. We've done the cookie dough ornaments, suncatchers, wooden ornaments, etc, etc, etc, lol. I'm looking fr something a little older for them this year, but also something that each of them can add their own special touches and skill levels too.
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Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, November 21, 2005 - 11:34 pm
One year I found a large set of the clear glass ornaments on sale after Christmas. I bought them and used craft paint I had at home and painted the names of my Mom and Dad and all the children and grandchildren on them. I also painted simple little designs(I'm no artist) on them for each person such as little music symbols for my sister-in-law, who is a music teacher, to make each one unique to the person. I painted little flowers, balloons, teddy bears, candy canes, fish on fishing poles, hearts, butterflies etc. I gave them to my mom the next Christmas (a little early present when we were putting up her tree) They were so easy and simple to make, but my mom has just treasured them ever since. When everyone first comes in to see the tree, they always have to search for their ornament to make sure it got a good position on the tree.
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Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 12:09 am
My sister and I get together for one day a few days before Christmas and do our traditional Christmas cookie baking and candy making every year. We always give a container of goodies to our close friends that we don't normally buy presents for. One year we decided to make our own containers to put the goodies in. My mom always saved all her empty coffee cans and she had a bunch of them under the sink. We washed and dried them well and took them outside. Then we took some spray paint and completely sprayed the outside of the cans in a midnight blue color. We let those thoroughly dry for a day, then we got out the craft paint and painted about the bottom third of the can solid white. We made it kind of wavy and uneven at the top so it looked like drifts of snow. Then we got the kids together and let them paint a simple three circle snowman on one side and a simple triangle green tree with a little brown rectangle base for the trunk on the other side. They made the snowman face with little dots of black and a little triangle carrot nose and a simple black stovepipe hat. They painted little circles of different colors on the tree for ornaments. Then dabbed dots of white all around the can to look like little snowflakes falling down. After the cans dry, you can spray them with a clear spray paint to seal them. The cans were all unique to the artist and even the cans that were painted by the youngest kids, that were no where near perfectly painted, looked charming. After our Christmas baking session we filled each one up. I hated giving them away! Between the painting and the baking it was a two weekend project, but my sister and I enjoyed it and the kids just loved it.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 12:31 am
That's a great idea, Az! I think I'll check around and see if anyone has cans we can use for the kids. I'm not much of a baker, lol. I do do christmas cookies with the kids though we usually make just enough for them to take a few home and that's about it. I'd much rather have something crafty to do with them. Awhile back the kids brough home some fund raiser stuff and one of the booklets was beaded bracelets. On the front cover was this:
I loved it and decided to try it. I started buying baskets of shower stuff awhile back so I'm going to embellish the baskets Christmasy style and I'll fill them with jewelry I've done and the shower gels and stuff. Not sure what the baskets can be used for later on though, lol! Maybe setting candles or bulbs or something as a sort of unique center peice or something. I love trying to figure this stuff out, lol. Tera, I've got to stay I'm still quite impressed with your stockings! I can't sew to save my life, but everytime I see a great sewn project I sure wish I could!
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Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 2:33 am
Wargod, you can put bought Christmas candy in the cans or even use them to 'wrap' a small gift.
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Skootz
Member
07-23-2003
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 3:26 am
wow, such great ideas. I am not that crafty, I really wish I was. Last year I made up "cookies in a jar" and added some material, ribbon and directions on the top. Tera...You are an awesome sewer...you could make those stockings and sell them, I bet you would do well. What a great idea Wargod...looking forward to see some of the finished products. What a nice way to give your gifts out too!
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 5:32 am
LOL Hey Skootz, I did that too! Some of the people went home and baked the cookies and told me how wonderful they tasted and wanted the rest of the recipe -> what was in the jar - so they could make more of the cookies. A few days ago two of the persons I gave them to said they still had the jar full of cookie mix, because they liked they way it looked and use it as a decoration. Tera, your stockings are awesome! The work you put into them is quite evident. I'm looking forward to seeing pics of the glass ornaments.
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 6:31 am
One idea for a project is tiny reindeer made into magnets, pins, or necklaces, from the craft/hobby store you need: small, 3" flat clothespins tiny movable eyes tiny pom poms in red and brown little holly leaves or you can cut some out of green felt brown paint or stain felt tip pen glue .... magnetic strips or pins to glue on the back or plastic string and colored jingle bells to intertwine with the reindeer for a necklace Paint or stain the open half of the clothespins brown. This will be the antlers when finished. When dry, place on table and start at the solid flat bottom using the felt tip pen, draw a mouth/nose with a cursive i shape. Glue a brown pom pom on the dot. (One red one for rudolph) Glue two eyes half way between the nose and the top of the solid area. At the top of the head glue two green holly leaves horizontally with a red pom pom in the middle (looks like a bow or ears). If you are making magnets, glue a magnet strip on the backs. If you are making pins, glue a pin closure to the back. If you are making necklaces, each pin must be drilled through at the 'antler' area then intertwined with jingle bells on a 30" plastic string. We used nine deer with green bells between the deer, (put a rednosed rudolph in the center) and ended with a slightly larger red bell.
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 8:35 am
Tera, those stockings are absolutely gorgeous!!! If I enjoyed (or knew more about) sewing I'd steal your idea in a flash!
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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 10:32 am
Here is a pic of the glass ornaments I glittered.
(I don't have my Christmas tree up yet so I used my palm tree ) You can't tell from the pic but the glitter really does sparkle (cloudy day today) I used an iridescent glass paint to paint the inside. That was kind of a pain. It took forever to dry. Polka dots and swirlies are about the extent of my artistic ability. I really appreciate the kind words about the stockings I made. I have been trying to come up with an idea to make some money of my own. With the positive feedback I got from you kind folks, I may just go into the Christmas stocking biz.
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Beachcomber
Member
08-26-2003
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:58 pm
Wow Tera, that looks like a catalog shot! They are beautiful. Was it a kit?
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 5:08 pm
Those are gorgeous!!!! My daughter made these one year as gifts..they were adorable http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/christmas/snowmen.htm
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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 6:03 pm
No, not a kit. I got the ornaments and the glass paint from Michael's. The glass glitter came from artglitter.com.
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Suz
Member
10-13-2005
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 6:34 pm
Tera, your stockings and glass ornaments are wonderful. I often wanted to try doing glass ornaments to give as gifts. If I could make them look half as good as yours I would be happy. It must have been really hard to paint the inside through to small hole on top.
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Tess
Member
04-13-2001
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 7:34 pm
Oh my gosh, Tera! I am in love with those ornaments! You did a beautiful job with them.
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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 8:22 pm
Thanks guys! You really made my day. (And I had a pretty crappy day) Suz, painting the inside was not that difficult, just time consuming. The glass paint is kind of thin and the bottle has a pointy spout. The real pain was having to swirl it around to evenly coat it then drain it out. For that I had to rig up a contraption that would drain one ornament into another (I refuse to waste paint). A vice and a few clamps worked pretty good. Then it took about 2 days for it to dry enough. The key to the glittering design is to use an ultra fine tip on the glue bottle. They are metal and I have seen them in most craft stores.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:57 pm
Tera, your glass ornaments are fantastic! Your artistic abilities are pretty darn good! Thank you for posting the pics.
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 8:13 am
You did a great job on the ornaments. Beautiful! How much time do you spend in a Michaels or other hobby store? Loads I'll bet! 
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Biloxibelle
Member
12-21-2001
| Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 8:54 am
Tera your crafts a wonderful. Your stocking look better then the store bought ones you posted. I have never made these but my MIL has. Of course it is late in the game for them this year. But she used to have everyone save those scoops you get in large boxes of Tide. Then she would paint or cover them with fabric and glue little tiny christmas scenes in them. She would punch a hole in the top and tie a ribbon to them so they could hang from the tree. They are really cute on the tree like little shadow boxes.
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Sillycalimomma
Member
11-13-2003
| Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 9:11 am
Tera your crafts are great! Two questions for you-How much did it cost to make the stalkings (or more specifically how much do you think it cost to make that one really cute high healed one on the far left?) and two-would you ever consider making/selling some because I don't have a crafty bone in my body and I would love to get my hands on about 6 of them! Lol

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