Christmas in September: Paper Stockings

After a four-month hiatus from my Christmas in [Insert Month Here] series, I am returning to it with a very fun project creating paper Christmas stockings.  These can be used as decorations, as package toppers, or as gift card holders.

The idea comes from Volume 8 of Handcrafted, a Stampington & Company publication from 2012.  I made several changes to Catherine Matthews-Scanlon's techniques:  First, I chose to keep the edges of my stockings straight rather than using pinking shears, simply because I liked the look of it.  Second, I used paper exclusively, rather than bonding fabric to paper using a product called Heat 'n Bond Lite, because I wanted to use what I already had rather than purchasing any new materials.  And finally, I created ribbon loops for hanging the stockings, rather than using wire, because I thought the wire would surely tear my paper creations.

The first thing I did was create a stocking template from white cardstock.  You can use online inspiration for the shape of your stockings; just do a search for "Christmas stocking templates."  I then used the template to cut paper stocking shapes from various old books, including musical scores, a typography book, and, appropriately, an old Christmas publication.

Then the creative and fun part begins:  determining embellishments for the front of the stockings!  I chose ribbons, lace, and buttons as my embellishments, and used a combination of Fabric Fusion, gel medium, and stitching for adhering items into place.  Here are a couple "work-in-progress" shots of my tabletop:

After I have the embellishments in place, I take the front and back of the stocking over to my sewing machine, and stitch around the edges, leaving an opening at the top, of course.

An evening of playtime has given me six fun Christmas stocking creations to use when the holidays roll around.

Now that it's just about October, we all know that Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye!

This project made a delightful mess in my art space.  I thought I would show you the un-retouched mayhem of my table when I finished these six stocking last night:

It only took about five or ten minutes of tidying to return my table to its normal state:  workspace open in the middle, controlled chaos on the outside perimeter:

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Have you gotten your holiday preparations underway?  What is the first thing you try to take care of?  Share with us in the comments.  And take a moment to visit Patty, over at Patty's Pretty Things, who has managed to keep up with her All-Year Holiday preparations much more diligently than I.  She's been posting some wonderful Christmas crafts every month this year!

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To see previous Christmas in [Insert Month Here] posts, check out these links:

January:  Recycling Christmas Cards

February:  Book Ornaments

March:  Book Page Ornaments

April:  Confetti Tags

Simply Handmade: Button Hair Bands

Some of my favorite projects are the very simplest.

I recently pinned a photo to my very small "Neat Ideas" board, showing how to spruce up a simple hairband with a button.  I went to my button collection, and pulled every one that had a shank on the back (the little loop, as opposed to buttons that are flat, and have holes in the middle).  Then I had to narrow it down to the shanks with a big enough opening to thread a hairband through.  With one simple move (illustrated in the Pinterest pin  and the Dream Patch post), I had a collection of much fancier hairbands for my girls.

Here is a closer look at some of these simple new creations:

One of my favorites for the girls.

I'm thinking this one might make it into my 'do.

Pretty with any color band.

What?  You don't have a cow button?

So, clearly for this project, you need pretty, fun or funky shank buttons, with large loops on the back.  I used an awl more than once to help poke the hairbands through.  (An awl is the pointy tool used in bookbinding.)  It also helps to have pretty colored hairbands to match to your buttons.

The woman at Dream Patch points out in her blog post that you can spruce up hairpins using the same technique, just sliding the pin through the button shank.  Simple brilliance!

Somehow, then, I found myself on My Paper Crane, where Heidi made her own fabric-covered buttons to turn into hairband embellishments.  I remembered immediately that I had a button kit tucked away that I had been wanting to use, so I dug it out, along with fabric scraps collected from my kids' discarded clothing, and got to work making my own buttons for creating fancy hairbands.

The process is simple, because I just followed the directions for the kit.

This kit makes smaller-sized buttons than the ones I am showing here.  I have to admit that once I made all ten larger-sized buttons, I ran out to JoAnn and bought a second kit for smaller-sized buttons to play with!

The kits provides you with a template, and tells you to draw around the circle onto your chosen fabric.

After you cut out the circle, you lay it face-down on one of the plastic pieces they provide.  Then you lay what will be the front of the button on top of it and press down.

For the next step, you tuck all the edges of the fabric inside, and press the back of the button (with the shank attacked) down on that.  This step can take a little effort, depending on how thick your fabric is!  I couldn't get denim to work at all.

You then just pop out and admire your fancy new button!

Of course, Mommy can't experiment with any new craft without little fingers bursting in and demanding to participate!  Both my four- and five-year old were able to make two buttons apiece with just a little bit of Mommy aid:

And they happily wore some new button creations for the rest of the day:

Aerial view!

I'm not sure that we need quite as many button hairbands as I am likely to create buttons for, so I imagine I will end up with a jar of brightly decorative buttons on a shelf in my craft room before this fabric button-covering craze passes!