Stocking stuffer ideas are the hardest part of Christmas shopping, because everything small in the store costs more than it should. Here are 35 DIY stocking stuffers you can make for a few dollars each: glitter keychains, hair tie flower rings, a woven mug cozy, lip balm and lavender bath bombs, tiny zipper pouches, rice hand warmers, paracord keychains, a leather cord keeper, clay gem rings, a jar of vanilla sugar for the baker, fingerless gloves, a crochet cup cozy, hot chocolate spoons, a denim dog toy, felt bookmarks, strawberry sugar scrub, fabric scrunchies, wood bead keychains, mini hoop ornaments, lip scrub and beaded bangles. Five of them are our own projects with a video on each, and the rest come from craft blogs we trust. Most take under an hour, and every one fits in a stocking. Perfect for the kids' stockings, the office exchange, teachers and the friend who always says don't get me anything.
1. Teeny Tiny Zipper Pouches
So Sew Easy runs a little production line of these every December. Each pouch finishes about three and a half inches long, takes a scrap of fabric too small for anything else and a leftover zipper, and gets a tiny swivel clasp so it hangs from a key ring or a bag. Four come out of one fat quarter with fabric to spare. They hold lip balm, a folded bill and a bank card, exactly what a stocking stuffer should do, and the free pattern walks through the zipper.
2. Glitter Hot Glue Keychains
Cherries, a heart and a daisy, all drawn in hot glue. Sketch the shape on parchment paper, trace it in hot glue, pour glitter over the wet glue and shake off the extra, then repeat until the whole charm sparkles. A small hole at the top takes a jump ring and a keychain hook. Glue sticks and a tube of glitter make a whole handful, so they cost cents each, and they clip onto a bag, a zipper or a set of keys.
3. Homemade Vanilla Sugar Jar
Julia Foerster grew up in Germany, where every recipe calls for vanilla sugar instead of extract, and she makes it with two ingredients. A vanilla bean gets split and scraped, the seeds and pod go into a jar of sugar, and a shake plus a couple weeks turns the jar fragrant. It goes into cookies and cakes in place of extract, and a spoon in coffee or whipped cream is the point. One bean flavors a big jar, so a small labeled jar is a baker's gift for a dollar.
4. Dried Orange Slice Ornaments
Ellen slices oranges an eighth to a quarter inch thick, lays them on parchment so the paper wicks the moisture and dries them low and slow for four to six hours, pulling the tray out and putting it back as the day allows. A loop of baker's twine through each dried slice makes an ornament, and clementines, lemons and grapefruit give a mix of sizes and colors. Three on a ribbon tucked in a stocking cost about what one orange costs, and they double as gift toppers.
5. Hair Tie Flower Rings
A pack of elastic hair ties becomes a set of flower rings that double as hair ties. Stack two ties, run a threaded needle through the center and pull tight until the elastic pinches into petals, wrap the thread around the middle to hold it, sew a pearl bead in the center and stitch one more hair tie underneath as the ring band. Pink and blue with a pearl look like something from an accessories shop, and a whole pack of ties is a dollar.
6. Five Minute Paracord Keychains
Lindsay calls these a five minute project, and they use up the paracord scraps left from bigger knotting projects. A length of cord folds around a key ring, a second color knots over it in a cobra stitch down the length, and the ends get trimmed and melted so nothing unravels. Neon and rainbow cord make them fun for kids and teens, and a darker pair suits a backpack or a set of keys for dad. A hank of paracord makes a whole pile.
7. Personalized Leather Cord Keeper
Lora Green cuts small leather circles from a thrifted jacket, punches a hole at each side and sets a snap so the circle wraps around a bundle of earbuds or a charging cable and clicks closed. A hot stamp set burns initials into the leather, which is what makes it a gift instead of a gadget. A whole thrift store jacket yields dozens of circles, so each keeper costs cents beyond the snap. It's the answer for the hard to buy for guy, and it slides into a stocking toe.
8. Air Dry Clay Flower Ring Holder
A flower shaped dish with a stamen in the middle that holds rings by their center. Roll air dry clay flat, cut a flower from the template, slit between the petals and overlap them, then set the clay over a small bowl on a towel so it dries cupped. A little cone of clay in the center is the ring post. Coral paint and a glossy finish make it look like porcelain. One block of clay makes several, so it's about a dollar per gift.
9. Beeswax Lip Balm Tubes with Printed Labels
Adrianne Surian melts beeswax and coconut oil in a small glass measuring cup hooked over a saucepan of simmering water, adds a drop of vitamin E to keep it and peppermint oil for a tingle, and pours it into lip balm tubes through a tiny funnel. The printable Queen Bee label is hers to download, and she shows how to personalize it with names or an inside joke. A bag of tubes and a block of beeswax fill a dozen, so a tube runs well under a dollar.
10. Simple Lined Zipper Pouch
Melissa Mortenson wrote this as the building block pouch, the one every other bag on her site grows from. Two rectangles of outer fabric, two of lining and a polyester zipper at least an inch longer than the pouch width, sewn so the zipper ends get stitched right over and trimmed. She explains how to resize it, why anything under three inches wide gets fussy and why a metal zipper won't work with this method. A fat quarter and a dollar zipper make a pouch for pens, makeup or cash.
11. Woven Yarn Mug Cozy
No knitting needles, just a scrap of cardboard with notches cut along both ends as a loom. Yarn gets strung down through the notches, a second color weaves over and under across the strands, and when the band is long enough to wrap a cup it slides off the cardboard and the ends get joined. A felt heart glued on the front finishes it. It fits a coffee shop cup or a mug handle, uses a few yards of yarn and takes an evening in front of the TV.
12. Pipe Cleaner Reindeer and Tree Pencil Toppers
Emma Smith's pencil toppers cost pennies and take minutes. For the tree, a green pipe cleaner wraps twice around the pencil top, zigzags upward in folds that get smaller toward the point, then gets squashed together and dotted with glued on buttons. The reindeer is a brown pipe cleaner bent into antlers with a sparkly red pom pom nose and googly eyes. A pack of pipe cleaners makes a whole pencil cup of them, which is why she suggests them as the gifts kids make for their friends.
13. Lavender Bath Bombs
Amanda Formaro explains what each ingredient does, which is what makes her bath bombs come out right the first time: baking soda and citric acid for the fizz, cornstarch to slow it down, epsom salt for the soak, coconut oil to soften skin and lavender oil for the scent. The water goes on from a spray bottle so the mix doesn't fizz early, and dried lavender buds pressed into the top of each half sphere finish them. A batch makes a dozen, and two in a bag fit a stocking.
14. Shrink Plastic Flower Bracelets
Tiny flowers drawn on shrink plastic, tinted with chalk rubbed in with a napkin, colored in the center with oil pastel and shaded with pencil, then baked until they curl and shrink to the size of a bead. Each flower gets a hole before baking, and afterward they string onto a fine chain with a few beads between them and a clasp at the end. One sheet of shrink plastic makes several bracelets in pink, blue, purple and green, and the finished stack looks like a boutique set.
15. Crochet Soap Saver Bag
Amanda Saladin's soap saver is a small crocheted bag with a drawstring that holds a bar of soap so the last slivers don't get lost in the bath, and it hangs in the shower to dry. The free pattern uses worsted cotton in a couple of colors, because cotton takes the daily soaking and dries fast where thicker yarns hold water. It crochets up in an evening, and a soap saver wrapped around a good bar of soap is a stocking gift for a couple of dollars.
16. Scrap Fabric Hand Warmers
Melissa Mora sews these from fabric scraps in under thirty minutes, on the machine or with a backstitch by hand. Two squares or hearts of cotton get stitched with pinking sheared edges, filled with rice and closed, and a minute in the microwave keeps hands warm in a coat pocket for the walk to school or the bus stop. She insists on cotton fabric and thread because polyester can melt in the microwave. A pair per stocking costs about a dollar in rice.
17. Upcycled Sock Coffee Cozy
Stephanie cuts the ribbed cuff off a sock with a hole in the toe and turns it into a coffee cozy that stretches over a paper cup or a travel mug. A few wool felt hearts get stitched on with embroidery floss, and she suggests initials in hand embroidery or needle felted roving for a personal touch. The sock is free, the felt is a scrap, and it takes about ten minutes. A cozy wrapped around a coffee shop gift card is a stocking stuffer for the commuter.
18. Monogram Tassel Keychains
Amber's keychains are a one inch bezel pendant, a rub on monogram, a clear epoxy sticker and a suede tassel. Rub the letters onto white paper with a popsicle stick, punch a one inch circle around them, top it with the epoxy dome sticker, glue it into the bezel with jewelry glue and hang it on the ring with the tassel. No cutting machine anywhere. A pack of bezels and a sheet of rub ons make a set for every name in the family.
19. Alcohol Ink Bookmarks
Sacha wrote this one for beginners who want to try alcohol ink before spending on a bigger project. Drops of ink in two or three colors spread across a strip of glossy photo paper or synthetic paper, a puff of air pushes them into blooms, and once dry the strip gets a hole punched and a beaded cord tassel. Every strip comes out different in purples, blues and gold. A pack of paper and three bottles of ink make dozens, and she says they're nice enough to sell.
20. Geometric Clay Gem Rings
Amy Weir rolls a small ball of white air dry clay, lets it firm up in a bowl of rice, then cuts flat facets around it with a kitchen knife so it looks like a cut gem. Once dry, the facets get painted, a gold paint pen catches the edges and the gem is glued to a plain ring base with jewelry glue. A single block of clay makes a tray of them, so a pair in a tiny box is a stocking gift for about a dollar.
21. Upcycled Felted Fingerless Gloves
Cassie May cuts these from an old cashmere sweater that has been felted first, so the cut edges never unravel and nothing needs hemming. Two rectangles, one long seam down each with a wide zigzag stitch, and a two inch gap left open opposite the seam for the thumb. She measures a pair she already owns to get the width right. A holey thrift store sweater runs a couple of dollars and makes several pairs, and they are the softest thing in the stocking.
22. Twisted Crochet Cup Cozy
Alex sized this cozy down from an ear warmer pattern until it fit a coffee shop cup, and the twist across the middle is the whole trick. It works up in single crochet only, so anyone who knows one stitch can finish one in about thirty minutes from under thirty five yards of yarn. That makes it a stash buster for the end bits of skeins. The free written pattern is on the post along with right handed and left handed video versions.
23. Beaded Sunglasses Clip
Meredith threads a doubled length of beading wire through a lobster clasp, strings beads down both strands, finishes the end with a crimp bead and a key ring, then ties on a little yarn tassel. The finished chain clips onto a purse or a tote and holds sunglasses, keys or a lip balm so nothing sinks to the bottom of the bag. She spent about ten dollars on beads and findings and got six to eight chains out of the pile.
24. Tallow Lip Balm
Mandy Black melts grass fed tallow with beeswax and a little coconut oil over a double boiler, then pours it into small tubes or a tin before it sets. The beeswax is what controls firmness, so a bit more of it gives a harder balm that holds up in winter weather. A few drops of essential oil are optional. She developed it because tallow carries the same fatty acids as skin, which is why it sinks in on chapped lips instead of sitting on top.
25. Fabric Hand Puppet
Shelly drew a free two piece hand puppet pattern with four sets of ears, so the same body turns into a person, a bear, a cat or a rabbit depending on which ears get cut. It takes machine sewing and a couple of fabric scraps plus felt for the face. She says the fabric does not have to match the real animal, so a blue cat or a polka dot bear is fair game. Print the pattern, tape the two pieces together and pick a creature.
26. Denim Dog Toy
Kimberly turns a pair of jeans with a blown out knee into a chew toy that stands up to tugging. The legs get cut into one inch strips at least nineteen inches long, then braided and knotted at both ends. No sewing and nothing fancier than scissors and a ruler. Denim takes the pulling and the chewing, and the finished toy washes on hot without shrinking or falling apart. A thrift store pair runs a dollar or two and makes several, so the dog gets a stocking too.
27. Decorative Gift Soaps
Julie works with a melt and pour soap base, which has already gone through saponification, so there is no lye to handle and no long cure to wait out. The base melts down, takes color and scent, then sets in small shaped molds, and a batch of pretty bars is finished in under an hour. A pour that goes wrong just gets remelted. She makes different small batches for different people at the holidays, which is how one afternoon covers a long list.
28. Hot Chocolate Spoons
Emma Chapman dips the bowl of a wooden spoon into melted chocolate and tops it while the chocolate is still wet, then lets the spoons set on a tray. Marshmallows, chopped mints, a white chocolate drizzle or a peanut butter drizzle all work, so one batch covers a lot of different tastes. Her microwave tip is to stir a spoonful of oil into the chocolate and melt it in thirty second bursts. Wrapped individually, they stir into a mug of hot milk.
29. Embroidered Felt Corner Bookmark
Erica Dietz starts with a three inch square of felt cut in half on the diagonal, which gives two triangles and enough for one bookmark. She embroiders a few flowers and leaves on one triangle using back stitch, lazy daisy, French knots and satin stitch, sketching the design on first or working it freehand. A narrow blanket stitch joins the two short edges and leaves the long edge open, so the finished triangle slides over the corner of a page. Stiffer felt keeps the stitches from pulling.
30. Strawberry Sugar Scrub Jars
Angie Holden grinds freeze dried strawberries to a fine dust in a food processor, then stirs that into cane sugar with room temperature coconut oil and a splash of vanilla. The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes and fills two small jars, which is enough to keep one and give one away. A circle of card stock and a heart sticker dress up the lid. It wants to live in the refrigerator and get used within a couple of weeks.
31. Easy Fabric Scrunchies
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Chelsea B. cuts a four by twenty four inch strip of cotton, satin or linen, small enough to come out of the scrap bin. The trick she teaches is rolling the fabric like a burrito so the whole tube gets sewn in one pass with a quarter inch seam, leaving a two inch gap. A safety pin then pulls ten inches of quarter inch elastic through, the ends knot, and the opening gets stitched shut. A finished one measures three to four inches across.
32. Wood Bead Keychains
Megan strings unfinished wood beads onto faux suede cord, knots the cord around a key ring and trims the tails. She colors plain beads with fabric dye instead of buying them by the shade, which means one bag covers every color scheme, and she mixes round beads with geometric ones so the stack has some shape to it. Once the patterns are worked out each one takes minutes, and she turned out dozens in an afternoon.
33. Mini Embroidery Hoop Ornaments
Carrie builds these from three inch embroidery hoops, which cost very little bought in bulk. A printable design goes on card stock, gets trimmed to a circle and is clamped between the two rings, then a hot glue gun adds a sprig of evergreen, a mini pine cone or a few jingle bells at the top. Baker's twine makes the hanger. Fabric scraps or wide ribbon work in place of the printable, so one pack of hoops covers a whole gift list.
34. Floral Sugar Lip Scrub
Anne-Marie Faiola melts coconut oil, cocoa butter and rosehip seed oil together, tints the mix with a little mica for a soft pink and stirs in granulated sugar until it thickens. Temperature is the whole trick here, because a hot mix lets the sugar sink to the bottom, so she keeps stirring as it cools and then spoons it into small clear pots. One batch fills about fifteen of them, which is a lot of little gifts for very little money.
35. Bead and Tassel Bangle Bracelets
Jessica Hill had a pile of large hole beads and embroidery floss left over from a craft class, so she slid them onto adjustable bangles and finished each one with a mini tassel hung from a large jump ring. Pick a single color story per bracelet, or grab beads out of the bag at random for a more mixed look. A whole handful of them comes together in about half an hour, and she walks through it on video.
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