Christmas Stalkings, er, Stockings!

By | December 19, 2016

When I was a kid, we didn’t have a fireplace in our home so my sister and I would hang our Christmas stockings on our bedroom doorknobs. Like all children, we would wake up early Christmas morning, while it was still dark, and before rushing out to the tree to see what Santa had brought, I would always very cautiously reach out in the total blackness and feel for my stocking on the door. If it was full of lumps and bumps I would breath a sigh of relief, for then I knew that I had made Santa’s “Nice” list, and all would be well under the Christmas tree!

red-and-swirly-stockings

Nowadays we are all grownups in our extended family, and we’ve made a family tradition of hanging a stocking for everyone on our fireplace mantel. The fun is that everyone puts little things into everyone else’s stockings, and we look through those first before we open our gifts. It’s our most favorite tradition; sometimes we know right away who gave us a certain thing in the sock, but sometimes we have to guess!

degree-family-stockings

A few years ago, however, we got a little twisted with our Christmas stocking treats, and now there is a element of stalking involved. It started like this: when our grandmother passed away, we had to go through her things, and it was huge task – Nana was a collector, to put it mildly. But there were light moments amid the stress when we would find something particularly odd or comical. My sister Karla was the first to slip one of the weird things we had found into someone’s stocking that year and it was a shock that produced gales of laughter whenever any one of those things was pulled out. Now they make the rounds, so whoever gets the booby prize one year can put it in someone else’s stocking the next year!

nanas-curlers

These mini hair curlers are the only example that I have in my possession at this time; another one is a fold-up inflatable clothes hanger, circa 1950, that you blow into like a beach ball!

So, it was with great pleasure that I was able to use the Hang your Stocking photopolymer stamp set and the coordinating Christmas Stockings Thinlits Dies to make some really cute cards this year:

red-stocking-card

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love Real Red and Bermuda Bay together, and the red, aqua and white are really a fresh combination for Christmas. I used a piece of patterned paper from the A Little Foxy Designer Series Paper Stack, and a small strip of Silver Glimmer Paper, plus some Bermuda Bay Thick Baker’s Twine along with the stamps and dies from the coordinating sets to make this card.

swirly-stocking-card

Real Red and Whisper White also look great with Garden Green for Christmas. I used another sheet of patterned paper from the A Little Foxy DSP Stack and one of the round dies from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies set, along with the elements from the Hang Your Stocking stamps and the coordinating Christmas Stockings Dies.

Here are some of the supplies that I used on my Christmas Stocking Cards. The current code is 44VNGYRC; use it if you order online and you’d like to receive a handstamped thank you card from me (allow demonstrator contact so I will have your address!)

Price: $110.00

Supply List

What favorite Christmas traditions have evolved in your family? Anything quirky or just the usual things?

2 thoughts on “Christmas Stalkings, er, Stockings!

  1. PaperPuff

    I love the red and aqua together too. My parents had it as their living room colour scheme at my suggestion and they liked it so much they just kept redecorating it the same colour! The stocking die is great, isn’t it?

    Reply
    1. ValoryDegree Post author

      Yes, I like the stocking die. I wonder if you die cut them in a dark green if you could make Wellies? Or would they still look like socks and not boots? I guess there’s only one way to know!

      Reply

Leave a Reply to PaperPuff Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.