Filling Christmas Stockings

Homemade Gifts

Homemade gifts are not always a good way to save money. Sometimes handcrafted items are as expensive or more expensive than store bought items. On the other hand, if you love the craft you do, and you're going to do it anyway, its good to have something to do with all the stuff you make. For example, I love polymer clay. But I would need six Christmas trees to hold all the polymer clay ornaments I have made. I love to make them, but if I don't give them away, I have nothing to do with them. So I use them for stocking stuffers.

Mokume Gane Cane

There are lots of sites that tell you how to work with polymer clay. This beginners lesson at Polymer Clay Centralis a good place to start. One technique that is popular with clayers is Mokume Gane, as seen in this tutorial , which is based on oriental metal working techniques. I have modified this technique for beginners. I call it Mokume Gane Cane. It is a good first cane for beginners for several reasons. My first attempts at caning didn't work out too well because of my color selections. Good canes usually have strongly contrasting colors. Several pale colors that look good together are probably not going to make a good cane. Color contrast doesn't seem to be as critical in this type of cane. Another reason this is a good first cane is that reducing the cane is not as critical because there is no true pattern to maintain, so there is very little waste. A beginner can become familiar with the technique without wasting a lot of expensive clay.

To make a Mokume Gane Cane:

I use cheap one color glass Christmas ornaments. I usually buy them at Walgreens on New Year's Day during clearance sales. I do not have a gentle enough touch to cover glass ornaments without covering them with scrap clay first.

Remove the metal part of the ornament with the hanger.
I roll out the clay on the second to the thinest setting on the pasta machine.
cut a rectangular piece of clay that is just wide enough to go around the fattest part of the ornament.
Wrap the ornament in the sheet. Pinch the sheet at the top and bottom of the ornament so that clay touch all surfaces of the ornament.
Trim the pinched portions as close to the ornament as possible.
Gently smooth the clay to eliminate as many lumps and bumps as possible without breaking the glass.
Bake according to package directions.

Select your clay. I use two or three packs. This makes a pretty big cane though, so you might want to start with half packs.

Condition your clay. Some of the newer clays claim they don't need to be conditioned, but I still do it. Maybe it's just because I like to though

Roll your conditioned clay into sheets about an eigth to a quarter inch thick. I use a pasta machine for this, but you could roll the clay into sheets using a drinking glass. Uniform thickness is not critical for this project. Do not use a wooden rolling pin that your plan on using for food, as it could absorb chemicals from the clay that you do not want to transfer to your food. Try to make the sheets as close to the same size as possible.

Stack the sheets and trim. Save the edge pieces that you trim off.

Cut the stacked sheets into two or three pieces that are similar in size and shape and stack again

Use tools to make depressions in the clay. Use the scraps that you trimmed off to fill these depressions. If you have chosen colors that will blend to make new colors, use the scraps to make a couple of new colors before you fill the depressions.

Flip the stack and repeat the last step.

This is where my method makes a major departure from regular Mokume Gane techniques. Instead of taking slices from the stack at this stage, cut the stacked sheets into squares. Depending on how much clay I'm using, I usually get about nine squares. Stack the squares and reduce the resulting "cane". The Polymer Clayspot has a tutorial on canes and explains what reducing canes means. This cane is prone to gaps, so make sure you really mush it together well.
Now you can slice the cane and apply it to the prebaked ornaments. Cut the slices as thin as possible. Check both sides of the slice before you apply it to determine which side you like better. smooth the slices onto the surface of the ornament
Smooth out lumps and bumps and fingerprints.
Bake according to package directions.
I use a Dremel hand tool with a muslin wheel to buff my ornaments. If you don't want to invest in this type of tool you can use fine grain sand paper (400, 600, 800 grit) and a piece soft denim to buff your ornaments.
Brush on a coating of Future Floor Wax if desired/
Use a piece of ribbon for the hanger.

Gifts in a Jar

These are kits for cookies or soup or bathsalts in a jar. For food recipies, the recipient has to add wet ingredients, like eggs, shortening, and milk. The kit is packed in a canning jar, and labeled with the directions for use. The recipe often calls for a wide mouth jar. Do not wait until the last minute to buy jars. They can be hard to find out of season, especially wide mouth. Many of these recipes are designed to be put in the jars in layers. They look great, but remember that if you are shipping your socks, the layering probably won't be maintained. The kit will still work, but won't look as pretty. I use thes for men or women. When I give them to men, I edit the label to say something like: "Want homemade cookies?--Quit grousing and get up and make some!" or "Give your wife a break--make soup for dinner tonight".

Here are a couple of sites I like for gift in a jar recipes.

Knit or Crochet

Small items that can be made using scrap yarn are good stocking stuffers. I learned this slipper pattern in 4H when I was 10. People ask for them when they wear out a pair. These take some time but they're easy and can be done while you are watching tv or riding in a car.

Using two strands of yarn on 10 1/2 or 11 needles, cast on 29 stitches.
1. 1 K across row.
2. 2 k9, p1, k9, p1, k9
Repeat these two rows 8 times for 27 rows--basically this is a garter stitch with a rib at the 10th and 20th stitch.
You should now be working the right side of the piece. Switch to a p1,k1 rib for 18 rows. (If for some reason you are working the wrong side of the piece, the first row of ribbing should start with k1 instead of p1. These measurements are not super critical, so don't rip out rows if you've got an extra one. Its more important that you start with the right stitch when you start the ribbing. This ensures that the rib from the garter sitch half of the piece is maintained from the heel to the toe.).
Do not bind off. Break off your yarn about 2 ft from the needle. Thread a yarn needle with this tail and run the yarn through the stitches on the needle, gather the stitches. Pull hard, or your toes will stick out of your slippers, and secure the gather before you start to sew the seam.
Sew a seam the length of the ribbing.
Fold cast on edge over on top of itself, and seam. I usually start at the top and sew toward the heel, matching the rib stitches together.
If you have yarn left after you've completed both slippers, make pompoms and sew them on the front of the slippers at the top of the seam.

Wrapping, Packing, and Shipping