More Elf on the Shelf

Even with all of the ideas out there, it is still easy to get stuck in a rut with your Elf.
Here are a couple of ideas that I have not seen on the internet. Sparky found a perfect shelf in the tub to remind my forgetful little one to pick up in the bathroom.

Our sneaky elf got into my nephew's diaper bag and tried to steal some puffs. My daughter got a kick out of this one.

One night, Sparky got the envie (cajun for craving) for some candy. He tried to wheel the Christmas parade stash away in Marie Grace's shopping cart.  Marie Grace is our American Girl doll.  She is good at sharing. But I am not. Gimme back my banana tootsie pop. You don't find those every day.

 

What was your Elf on the Shelf up to last night?

Stationery card

Cross Stitch Joy Holiday Card

Turn your family photos into holiday cards this season.

View the entire collection of cards.

You know I don't normally try to sell you stuff, but Shutterfly offered to pay me (a VEDDY VEDDY small sum) to share my card with you. I actually like and use Shutterfly regularly, so I am okay with sharing.  They are professional, quick to get back to you with problems and I am very satisfied with them. So if you haven't already made your Christmas cards, its super user friendly to use their site.

DIY Dollhouse

Want a gift your little girl will remember forever? 

Get started now if you want the dollhouse complete by Christmas.  These kits take some time to complete. We bought one from Hobby Lobby (with a half-off coupon.) My husband did most of the work, but I did paint most of the small pieces. Want to get your mind off of something? Take up painting very small pieces of wood. If you ask me, it is worth the effort. This is the sort of thing people truly appreciate and keep forever.

I chose realistic paint colors instead of pink and purple. I even went to Lowe's to look at paint cards. I know, its ridiculous.

What dollhouse bedroom is complete without a custom bulletin board? Scraps of cardboard, ribbon, and fabric were used for this one. The fabric was left over from my daughter's real bedroom.  I used scrapbooking mini brads for tiny buttons. I just snipped the backs off and glued them on. We cut out index prints from online picture orders and they fit perfectly.

The same fabric was used to cover the crib mattress and make curtains. It doesn't take much fabric for all of this. (If you look closely, you can see where my daughter decided to "trim" the sides of the curtains. OCD is begging me to fix that, but I won't.) The rods are balsa dowel rods, but I haven't found anything that works better for finials than the little plastic pieces. The search is still on.

The miniature painting was done on a small piece of chipboard from my scrapbooking supply. It's a teeny tiny bird on an alligator's snout. I may or may not have copied from a real painting in a catalog.

Why is the bedding and fabric on dollhouse furniture so outdated?? No wonder more people don't buy real dollhouses. I might have to recover and reupholster some things...

Yoda Pumpkin

Does your school or community host a Pumpkin Light Night? or Pumpkin Shine? All of the classes and individual students decorate pumpkins and line the track around campus. The kids get another chance to wear those expensive Halloween costumes and jump in the bounce houses and eat junk food.

I am always amazed at the creativity that comes out that night. Folks go all out.

Pumpkin Light Night theme for my daughter's class is Yoda this year.  Not Star Wars. Just Yoda. Here is our version. We even added foam ears and white feathers from a boa, all from Dollar Tree.  Gotta love Dollar Tree.

The key to painting faces is not to use black paint for the outlines. A better choice is a darker hue of the face color. I ran out of the green paint, so I ended up using a light brown color, which still works better than black. Black is too harsh and unnatural.

P.S. One tip for decorating pumpkins:  Wash the pumpkin first to remove the waxy coating.  The paint sticks much better. And use krazy glue, not hot glue. 

OK, that was more than one tip.  It's your lucky day.

 

Glittery BOO Banner Party

One of my friends had the idea to have a "Pinterest Party" and it sounded like fun, so I did. Inspiration for this DIY banner came from creative chaos. That girl is good with glitter.  

Each guest found her seat by looking for her initial in the glitter tray.  I made little bags to put all of the ingredients in.  

What's a craft party without lots of candy?? In fall colors, of course!

I even wrote the steps to make the banner on my ginormous Ballard Designs Knockoff chalkboard.  If you don't know why the first two steps are crossed out, you may need to check out Youtube more often. 

For some reason, I have made a new banner for Halloween every year.  I don't have banners for every holiday, but Halloween always gets one. I guess Halloween is the only holiday I am not too busy with other things to make crafts. Here is the 2012 version.  I used old book paper, orange crepe paper streamers, scrapbook paper, silver  white gold glitter and letters cut with my Slice machine. I love all of the fonts you can get with Slice Machine cartridges.
This would be cute to have kids hold up for Halloween costume pictures.  Especially ghost costumes.
Check out last year's banner here.

We had a blast! Much more fun than bunco!

 

Rag Wreath

Rag wreaths are all over the internet, so I decided to make one. Out of real rags. Learned how from a tutorial at chickabug.com.

This process would probably be a lot easier if you bought fabric, but I like to be authentic, so I used old t-shirts.  Consider it my contribution to the Go Green movement. Which means it wasn't finished for my daughter's birthday party, which is what it was intended for.  That's ok though, because I never did find an owl for the center. With all of the cute owl stuff out there, I could not find anything suitable for this wreath.  Seen anything? 

For some reason, this thing reminds me of Snuffalupagus...

DIY Owl Costume

Speaking of Pinterest, I saw this cute pink owl costume and thought, "I could make that."  Well, I made it, but I am not itching to do that again.  The instructions said it would take fifty "feathers."  So I cut out fifty out of felt and flannel.  Yeah, it took WAY more than fifty. I felt like I would never get to stop making feathers.  I think fifty must have been to fit a two year old (not my seven year old.) The mask was surprisingly easy to make.  Overall, I would say this was doable, just time consuming.  Start early. The good thing is, this was probably the least expensive costume we have ever had for halloween if you can find a pink jacket for $3 like I did. You can find instructions and even templates here.