DIY Stocking Holders That are Easy and Cheap to Make!

An easy way to make DIY stocking holders. Follow this step by step tutorial to make some new Christmas decor for your home.

Hi Friends!!  Ho Ho Ho… .Another DIY Christmas decor tutorial coming at you! 

I have wanted new stocking holders for my mantle for a long time now.  I had cheap ugly ones from the dollar tree for over 10 years and they were broken and cracked…Yuck! 

I have always wanted the pretty metal ones that spell out words but they were so expensive. 

So to go along with my new rustic DIY Christmas decor I whipped up these cute and easy DIY stocking holders. 

I made a few different sets and used some without the hooks for just decoration too.  The best part of this Christmas project was I didn’t have to spend any money…. woo hoo!  

I got a box full of bits of pine wood from someone on a local Facebook group that was giving them away for free.  Her son used a lot of pine for karate practice so they were all different sizes but they were free!!  My kind of project!

Materials for DIY Stocking Holders

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Prepping Wood to Make a Stocking Holder Set

I made two different types – one was stained with stenciled lettering and the other way was all painted.  I’ll explain how to do both!

First up is the stained one.  Cut all the wood pieces you need with a miter saw or jigsaw.  I cut my top pieces 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches and the bases 5 1/2 x 4 inches. 

Then stain your wood.  I love dark walnut color. Apply with a brush and then wipe off excess with an old shirt or towel.

Cut out your letters on vinyl with a vinyl cutting machine.  With the stain, you are going to use the vinyl as a stencil so weed out the letters. 

I made one set that said NOEL and one that read PEACE.  I have a family of 5 so I used PEACE for my stocking holders DIY. 

Apply the vinyl to the block.  You probably don’t need transfer tape for this small of a project.

I like to add a clear coat to prevent bleeds from the topcoat paint.  I brushed on a layer of Matte Varnish or you can use Mod Podge.

Once that’s dry, paint on your stencil.  I like to use chalk paint.

Then peel off the vinyl and you have beautiful letters!

As I mentioned before you can use these as just decor or as a DIY Christmas stocking holder.

Using the PVPP Method to Paint

If you’d rather use the PVPP (paint, vinyl, paint, paint) method to paint your stocking hangers, first paint the blocks with the color you want the LETTERs to be.  I used whitish chalk paint. 

Once that is dry, apply the vinyl letters and scrape down well.  Then you are going to paint another light layer of the same color over the vinyl lettering.  (For me this was white).  This is to keep the top layer of paint from bleeding under the vinyl. 

Once that’s dry, paint the topcoat with chalk paint or spray paint.  I used a combination of the two. 

I painted chalk paint and then added some glitter spray paint.  Paint the bases too!  Then you can peel off the vinyl letters.  Amazing, huh??

To attach the top and base of the DIY stocking hangers together, I measured two holes on the bottom of the base that were equidistant from one edge. 

Then I pre-drilled some countersunk pilot holes.  All that is left to do is drill screws through the bottom into the top piece.

If you want to use them for Christmas stocking holders add some hooks or knobs to the front and put them on your mantle!

You can check out how to make this light-up Nativity sign by clicking here!

You can use whatever word you want on these DIY stocking holders for mantle.  You could use your last name to have an entire stocking holder set.

If you’d like to save this DIY stocking hanger tutorial for later, simply hover over the top left of the image below and PIN It now!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a creative day,