You know what your holiday table setting is missing?! A customized butter mold! Make a buttery version of your family name, a holiday wish or even a humorous statement. With my Customizable Butter Mold tutorial for Crafts Unleashed, the sky’s the limit!
Spend enough time on Pinterest and you’re sure to see tons of pins where people stick velcro dots on the end of jumbo craft sticks so that kids can make shapes and such. I’ve been wanting to make these for a while now and it just so happens that I’m also on the hunt for good stocking stuffers. Bingo, two birds with one stone!
This is such a quick and easy project I almost hate to write a full tutorial for it! Depending on the amount of sticks you want to make, you could seriously finish this in 10 minutes. Perfect for those last minute “Oh Crap, We Forgot The Stockings!” moment!
I’m uploading the free Label Printable as well as the Activity Sheet Printable. Feel free to download them and use them for your own personal pleasure (no commercial use, please). If you laminate the activity sheets, kids can also use a dry erase marker to write out the words. These also make a great addition to your bag to keep the kids busy during your fancy holiday dinner!
Materials:
- Jumbo Craft Sticks
- 5/8 inch round hook & loop stickers
- Muslin Bag
- Activity Sheet Free Printable (01, 02, 03, 04)
- 5×7 Laminating Pocket (no heat necessary)
- Label Free Printable
Directions
1. Stick a hook sticker and a loop sticker to each side of the jumbo craft sticker for a total of four stickers per stick.
2. Print, cut and laminate each of the 5×7 activity sheets.
3. Print and cut out the Free Label Printable.
4. Put all the Shape Sticks and activity sheets in the muslin bag and attach the label. Done!
5. Perfect stocking stuffer…and no batteries needed!
There’s a chill in the air, toy catalogs have begun to arrive by the truckload and I gained five pounds just thinking of holiday dinners…you know what time it is?! Time to start working on your Retro Space Age Stockings! They’re not difficult to make but they can be time consuming so I suggest you start now if you want your family members to have these by Christmas.
As always, please let me know if you have any problems downloading the files. Hope you and all the space nerds in your family like their stockings!
Click here to download your Retro Space Age Stockings!
You gotta love any craft that makes you dig through the recycling bin. (Ooo, look at my dry skin. Ouch, get that woman some moisturizer!) Toilet paper rolls make adorable heart stamps, who knew? I’ll tell you who knew…Pinterest. I’d seen this simple craft making the rounds (Rustic Remnants, Teach Preschool, Daily Candy) so when I came down with a nasty case of mastitis this week, I knew that bending a toilet paper tube and giving Jack some paint was about all the energy I could muster.
I gotta tell you that this project was a major exercise in letting Jack explore the creative process on his own terms. I was reminded about this concept a few weeks ago when I came across the Learning to Let Go article on Hands On: As We Grow. I know that, when crafting with a young child, it truly is about the process, not the product but who chooses green, gray and black paint for a VALENTINE’S DAY project?! I told him he could pick any colors and those are the colors he chose. Deal with it, Vanessa. Funny thing is that I love how his turned out. Maybe he’s on to something, pink and red are so last year. :D
Jack’s favorite part…squeezing the paint out!
Jack’s lovely green/black/gray hearts. I couldn’t have done them better!
So, whether it was because of inspired parenting or being completely drained because of Mastitis (more likely), I was able to let go of what I thought this project should look like. Green and black? Awesome, go for it. You want to mix all the colors? That would be fun. What would happen if we squeezed the tubes out of shape? Cool, let’s find out. In the end it was a win/win. Jack gain some creative freedom and confidence and I got to lay out comatose on the floor while he was entertained. Thank goodness for the weekend!
Here are the instructions for assembling your very own Retro Space Age Stocking! All those stitches may look a bit daunting but just wait and see, it comes together fairly easily and quickly. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any question or if any of the directions are unclear.
Retro Space Age Stocking
Materials:
- patterns (found on previous post)
- felt
- fusible webbing
- standard sewing supplies (scissors, needle, thread, etc)
Instructions:
1. Decide on the color scheme for the entire stocking. For Maxwell’s Alien Ship pattern, I’ll be using red rays, a blue cuff and a combination of red/glue/gray for the ship.
2. Cut out pattern pieces.
3. Trace pattern pieces onto felt/fusible webbing and cut out. (The blue piece in the picture above was cut first and then cut again when I attached it to the webbing. I highly suggest you not do it this way. Cut out a piece of felt and webbing and trace the pattern onto that. Then you can cut through all the pieces. Much easier!)
4. Position all the felt pieces together on a larger piece of white felt and iron into place.
5. Cut out entire applique.
6. Cut out remaining pattern pieces (stocking, cuff, hanging tag, letters, rays). Piece together to make sure Tried and True’s pattern is, indeed, tried and true. Check baby monitor to see if baby is still sleeping soundly. Whew, still asleep. Onto step 7!
7. Using small, even sized stitches, begin by attaching the background rays onto the stocking. For this example (Alien Ship), we’ll be omitting ray #1 and #5 from the stocking since the alien ship has nifty transporter rays. All the other stocking designs have five background rays.
8. Once all the background rays have been sew on, proceed to attach the applique (Alien Ship) onto the stocking. Note: I screwed up big time on this step. I didn’t bring out the other stockings as I was finishing Maxwell’s last week and forgot that I used matching thread on each felt color instead of just all white thread (see picture). Because I knew it would eat at me every year that I brought out the stockings and saw that Max’s was slightly different, I just went ahead and re-embroidered every single white stitch with the matching color thread. Double the work. Ugh, note to self: plan ahead!
9. Stitch name onto cuff.
10. Center cuff and name onto stocking top (you may have to cut off excess cuff materials.) Sew the cuff to the stocking, right sides facing. Repeat with backside.
11. Press seams open with iron.
12. Sew stocking front to stocking back.
13. Fold the edge under 1/4″ and stitch. Sew on hanging tab and you’re done!
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