"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care," or in this case, "on our window latches with care."
About seven years ago, close to the birth of my second child, my mother helped me make Christmas stockings. Thankfully, my mom is a skilled seamstress and did all the hard parts. All I did was pick out the velvet and "stamp" it – the fun part!
Stamping on Velvet:
Stamping on velvet is a very easy technique as long as you have the right velvet – 35% Rayon 65% Acetate Velvet gives best results. Besides velvet, you need wood-mount rubber stamps, water in a misting bottle, and an iron.
Put your stamp upside-down (rubber side up) on a flat, firm surface. Place your velvet on top of your stamp, fuzzy side down against the rubber of the stamp so that you see the back side of the material. Mist water onto the back side of the material. Then, with the heat on high, place the iron against the dampened fabric and move it in a circular motion to heat evenly. Count 10 seconds and then remove iron. That should do it – your image should be transferred to the velvet.
These stamp images come from Stampin' Up! stamp sets that are retired, but we do have current snowflake sets that give great results: Festive Flurry and Snowflake Soiree.
We ended up stamping a LOT of velvet! My sister joined us – making stockings for both my family and hers, and double-sided tree skirts for all three of us (my sister, my mom, and me). It took some time, but these stockings (and where they are hung – hahaha) have become a traditional part of our Christmas. And it warms my heart to know that these now-treasured heirlooms were something I helped handcraft.
Memories made.
Here's another area of my living room that is festive for the holidays. I love these square shadow box wall frames that I got at Michael's. They display my 12×12 scrapbook pages! Right now I have on display two sets of pages that I pulled from our family Christmas album. I can change pages with the seasons or holidays! (In the fall, I had pages from past Septembers, Octobers and Novembers. In the summer, I had 4th of July pages/photos on display.)
The front frame is on a hinge and has a strong magnetic closure. On the inside is a mini bulletin board. When I want to change the scrapbook pages, I just open up the frame, remove the "old" pages and pin up the "new" ones! Easy… and a great way to share scrapbook pages without making guests sit down and look through actual photo albums.
Memories shared.
The house is festive! Now all I have left to do is clean – the not-so-fun part.
Stamp Your Art Out! ~Rachel
