turned my little girl into an elf

I saw on pinterest about making your child into an elf, so that it was I did with a picture of my daughter.  I will show you a picture of her as an elf, and I also have a template for the elf accesories (hat, mittens, boots, etc) for you.  I used, of course, two mittens and two booties (just flipped one side around.  I did cut these out of cardstock just so they'd be sturdier.  I cropped a picture of her and printed it out as an 8x10, then cut out her face & neck.  The body is an 8-1/2x11 piece of cardstock with corners rounded.

Shatterproof ornament for classroom activity

I'm doing two projects for Nater's Kindergarten Christmas party.  The first one is a thumbprint reindeer ornament.  I bought some silver & gold shatterproof ornments at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, a brown Staz-on ink pad, red, brown & black sharpie markers, and red and green ribbon to make these.  I think the kids will enjoy them.  Here is the sample we made at home today

week one of the elf

Here is a recap of our first week with *Sparkles* the elf.
1.  North pole breakfast
2.  crepe papered bedroom door
3. " be good" spelled out with golfish crackers and a candy cane heart
4.  hanging a sign from the ceiling fan in the dining room
5.  coloring with crayons in a coloring book
6.  snow angel in rice on the dining room table
7.  q-tip snowflake with glitter glue

the Elf on the Shelf calendar

this is the calendar I worked up of ideas to do each night for when she wakes up in the morning.

the Elf on the Shelf is here!

The Elf on the Shelf arrived today, her elf is named *Sparkles*. She brought an intro letter, a book, and a gift (Prep & Landing, a Disney movie about an Elf of course!). *Sparkles* hosted a North Pole Breakfast of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer pancake with bacon antlers, powdered donuts on a candy cane, hot cocoa with mini marshmallows, and milk!

Truth in the tinsel has started

We are doing Truth in the Tinsel E-book Advent Activities this year.  I also bought the additional e-book for the ornaments to do this year.  Next year it is my hope we will do more homemade ornaments.  I was trying to choose between doing a Jesse tree or the Truth in the Tinsel for advent.  Truth in the tinsel won out for me due to the quality of the printables for ease this year due to my work schedule.   For our tree, I bought a white foam board, free-hand drew a christmas tree in pencil, then i cut it out with an exacto knife.  I was able to make the star and the tree trunk from the foam board scraps.  I painted the tree green and the star and trunk gold.  In the third picture she is putting on her second ornament.  I have the tree mounted with command strips that won't damage wood or walls tou our closet by the front door, so everyone will see it!