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Our DIY Stocking Holder

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Happy Black Friday, my friends! Since we’re all stuffed from our Thanksgiving feast yesterday and the turkey is behind us, I feel like I can now head into full-fledged Christmas mode!

And do you know that every year at Christmas I run into the same problem? It’s kind of frustrating actually. You see, we don’t have a mantel. Where are we supposed to hang the stockings?

Up until this year we’ve been hanging them on the knobs to our closet doors, but what fun is that?! We never get to see them all together looking happy and filled to the brim. So this year (with the help of my very handy husband) I decided to do something about it.

How to Make a DIY Stocking Holder

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Step 1- Gather Stocking Holder Supplies

Here’s what I used to create our DIY stocking holder:

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Step 2- Attach Boards to Create a Base

We all know that Donnie is the one who uses the tools around here, so when I had the idea to make my little stocking holder, I told him what I had in mind, and he whipped it up so fast that I didn’t even have time to take “before” pictures!

The best part is that he managed to make this backing using all supplies we had on hand. Win! And basically he just took two pieces of 1 x 4 MDF that we had in the basement, cut them to 30″ each, attached them together, and drilled 4 holes through it for the knobs. SO simple.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

The easiest way to attach the two boards would have been to use straight brackets, but we happened to be out of those the day we were putting this together, so Donnie just cut down two little scrap pieces of flooring that we had lying around and screwed them into the back, which worked like a charm! He also added two D-ring hooks to the back so we could eventually hang it on the wall.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Once he had the backing together, it was time for me to get to work on the fun part! I started by painting the piece that he had made white.

Step 3- Create Design in Silhouette Studio Software

While that was drying, I pulled up my Silhouette Studio software and created my design. Since I was just doing words, it was super quick! I knew I wanted our last name in silver and the words “The” and “Family” in gold, so I made two separate files.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I typed out “Lawson” in Snell Roundhand font in my desired size. Since it is a cursive font and I wanted my CAMEO to cut the word all in one piece (as opposed to cutting each letter individually, which would make them come apart).

I selected my word and went into the “Modify” window. I clicked “Weld,” and “Lawson” was welded together and would cut all in one piece!

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I rotated the word slightly so that it would fit on my vinyl, and it was ready to go. I then typed out “The” and “Family” in Charlemagne Std font in a separate file and made it my desired size. Since this wasn’t a font where the letters intersected in any way, I didn’t need to weld them.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Step 4- Cut the design using the Silhouette machine.

I put my CAMEO to work, cutting out “Lawson” first…

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

This is kind of hard to see, but I wanted to make sure I showed this step for anyone who hadn’t used a Silhouette before. I had cut a piece of vinyl to the size I needed and put it on my cutting mat, which is sticky and holds the vinyl in place.

I fed the mat into my Silhouette, and the machine cut the shape. It comes out looking like the picture above. You can see the word imprinted, but I have to weed the extra vinyl away until only my word is left. I did the same process for the other words on the gold vinyl.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Step 5- Transfer the vinyl onto the stocking holder base.

Now this is the part where I have to make a little confession. I am not the best with spacing. Oh I can write a paper or story or blog post with the best of ’em, but ask me to measure and do numbers? I usually call in my handy hubby for that.

Except… he was at work this time. How dare he, right?! 😉 So I had to go it alone, but fortunately my handy dandy transfer paper had a grid pattern on it that could help me out.

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

“What is transfer paper?” you may ask. Well, rather than trying to pick up each letter individually and line it up in a straight line (which, let’s be honest, would never happen in a million years), the transfer paper can help me move the design to my surface all at once.

It’s sticky, so I can lay my design on it face down, use my scraper tool to make sure it stays in place, peel my paper backing off, and my words are set up exactly the way I want them.

Obviously the words are backwards here, but when I flip it over and place it on my board…

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

…it’s exactly the way I need it to be! You can see that I used my measuring tape to make sure my words were centered, and once I was confident that they were, I used my scraper tool to press down on the vinyl so it would stay in place on the board when I peeled away the transfer paper.

Step 6- Add knobs and hang the stockings!

Then all that was left to do was insert my knobs and hang up my stocking holder!

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Finally! A place to display our stockings! And these aren’t just any stockings… they’re very special. My great aunt has made one for every person in our family, so we all have the same one to root through on Christmas day!

She made mine when I was born, so it’s a little more worn than the other ones, but that just means it’s been more loved. 😉 Donnie received his the Christmas we got married (our anniversary is December 23rd!), and she made them for the Cs on their first Christmases as well.

I’m so glad to have a place to show them off all together!

Our DIY Stocking Holder | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Looking for more fun holiday projects? Try these adorable Christmas gnome crafts to add some cuteness to your holiday decor!

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday weekend and are enjoying time with friends and family! Happy Thanksgiving!

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This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

6 Comments

  1. JaneEllen says:

    I sure hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving today. Well it’s till Thanksgiving here for few more minutes.
    (Pssst. Michaels had a Cameo for $219.99 yesterday). Doggone it we had to pay mortgage or I’d have had the money to buy one.
    That’s sure a great deal they’re offering otherwise.
    Love your hanging post for stockings, how nice to have Special Aunt to make your stockings. That’s very special.
    I’m so happy to say we got to spend time/dinner with our daughter and family today for first time in over 4 yrs. Been long dry spell but so worth the wait. Talk about being grateful. I had printed out (from an offer on a blog) some cards on which we could write things we were grateful for, then we discussed them after dinner, wow, talk about emotional. Was an exceptional Thanksgiving and very relaxed. To say we enjoyed it would be really understating our feelings.
    Happy weekend Abby.

  2. What a great tutorial! I don’t own a Silhouette but wow, I can see why everyone loves them so. Every year around this time I think, “I need to figure out a way to hang our stockings” and then forget about it until next year. This is a great idea–thanks for the inspiration!

  3. Imagine my surprise when I was on Pinterest and saw my stocking on someone else’s blog. Ironically, my aunt also made mine and my brothers (I’m 50!) but passed away before my kids were born. It must have been a pattern that could be purchased…its IDENTICAL! So strange! (And I feel the same way about mine! So precious to me!) happy holidays. 🙂

  4. Amber Slocum says:

    I LOVE this project. I have always just hung them off of random things around the house also but that never looks quite right or the cat wants to play with them! LOL This is such a great way to get them all in one spot. Thank you for the detailed instructions too.

  5. I just saw your post about your Christmas stocking holder. The stockings are what really caught my eye, because I thought we were the only ones who had those. My mother made them for us back in the 60’s. She also made them for our spouses as we got married and then for the grandchildren as they were born. Is there any chance that you still have the pattern in the family? My youngest daughter is getting married and just called her grandmother who is now 86 to make a stocking for her soon to be husband. We have searched high and low and cannot find the pattern anywhere. Hope you can help us! Thanks

    1. Our family stockings are very similar and I have the pattern. There is a row of boys and girls, a row of santas and a row of trees. The top has the name of the child and their birth year.

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