For the past few years, I’ve watched a group of bloggers host an ornament exchange. To me, Christmas ornaments should all tell a story. Travel, stages of life, interests, hobbies… each ornament should have a meaning. Every year we get a new ornament for the kids and usually a family ornament as well. With dates! If not, I’ll write the year in permanent marker on the back. Now that you understand my love of ornaments, you can probably guess how excited I was to be able to join the ornament exchange! The exchange link party is going on now and here is the tutorial for my “The Stockings Were Hung” mini pallet ornament.
My Inspiration
Each of us participating in the exchange was matched with a partner. My partner is Emily from Two Purple Couches. I don’t know how the partners were matched up, maybe by name!
But Emily and I are a great match. We’ve sent some emails back and forth to each other and I wish we could chill out on either her purple couches or my gray ones and talk in person for hours! I’m pretty sure we’d have a ton of fun talking and crafting together.
Plus, we’re both Ohio gals, even though I don’t live there anymore.
Inspiration struck me when I learned this would be Emily’s first Christmas as a family of three!
Add to that working on a “purple and purple and purple” sweater for my niece and discussing handknit stockings with my neighbor… well, I’ll just show you how it came together.
Mini Pallet
I started with a few craft sticks.
And cut one down into smaller pieces. With my trusty glue gun, assembling the mini pallet sign was much easier than a full sized one!
Time to give the pallet a little color with antiquing wax.
Then I painted my wording on the pallet. When dry, I sanded a few places and over the words to give it an aged look.
I actually crocheted the little stockings at church one Sunday.
The stockings could be made from fabric, felt, really anything! They don’t have to be crocheted or knit, I just had the inspiration and the yarn…
Of course, I did have a minor dilemma as to how to attach the stockings to the sign! For the large barn wood stocking hanger, I used actual hooks… but its full size.
While I pondered this, I knocked over a container of bobby pins off the counter in my bathroom… picking them up, I realized they were the perfect solution!
With some wire cutters, they easily fit the back of the pallet. More hot glue to the rescue, along with a piece of twine as a hanger. My, or should I say, Emily’s ornament was complete!
Check out all the great ideas and join in the Ornament Exchange Link Party!
Are you ready for Christmas?
Hand knit personalized stockings
Those are just darling and we have that same ornament tradition in our house! My parents started is with us kids when were small and I’ve kept it going with our kids. I try to find ornaments that signify some new experience or skill they gained that year and our family ornament is usually about/from wherever we went on vacation. I love that each ornament we put on the tree is a reminder of our past. Pinned
Adorable! Such a classic line from the Night Before Christmas. The stockings are so cute. It’s going to look great on the tree.
This is so so adorable! I love this!!! Such a clever idea. The little stockings are soo cute.
Kim
This ornament is the cutest little thing. I agree as lovely as the decorator trees are I love the ones that tell the families story.
This is an adorable idea for an ornament! Very cute.
So adorable! Pinning! I have the same tradition with my kids – an ornament every year significant to something that happened during the year!
I love how you made the little palette and the stockings are so cute.
Thank you!
So tiny and so cute!
It was kinda fun to see how little I could make them
Emily, I absolutely adore my ornament, and it’s the perfect addition to our tree this year! I love how you combined my love of purple & our growing family together in a meaningful ornament 🙂 I will definitely cherish this for years to come. So glad to have you as my ornament partner!
I’m so happy! My mom gave us each our yearly ornaments when we had our first Christmas in our own home and I plan to do the same for my kids. But my family ones will always be mine, even when the kids have grown and taken their ornaments!
Oh my, that is just adorable. Pinning 🙂
Just darling! Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJs!
Ok, I can’t even express how stinkin’ cute this ornament is. The mini stockings are just too cute! Pinned.
Love those mini stockings! What a cute ornament!
Just love those mini capes, lovely idea. Thanks for joining Bloggers Pit Stop – Pit Stop Crew
This is such an adorable ornament! I love it so much I feel the need to learn how to knit/crochet to make it!