Elf Yourself!

A few years back, my cousin emailed me about OfficeMax and their "Elf Yourself" videos.

Needless to say, they have been making us laugh ever since and have become a family tradition!

I'd like to present the Official 2011 Gilmore Addition of

Elf Yourself!

Now go make one for your family. I know you want to!!!

Corkie Rudolf

I found these cute little Rudolfs and HAD to make one!

Source: Uploaded by user via Amy on Pinterest

And I had plenty of cork left over from making my little Cork Tree.

It was just a matter of deciding which corks to use and then hot gluing them together in your Classic Reindeer form.

Sparkly pom pom for the nose, googly eyes and some brown pipe cleaner antlers & tail.

With his nose so bright...he's ready to guide that sleigh!

Kissing Ball?

My idea of a cute & easy ornament is THIS:

Source: goodhousekeeping.com via Amy on Pinterest

It was pinned from Good Housekeeping's site. They call it a no fuss Kissing Ball with super smooching power, but I thought it would look cute on my tree!

I had these ugly round ornaments I found at Goodwill, scrap material and ribbon. In no time at all...

Taa Daaaaaa!

I even pinking sheared the material and V-cut the ribbon.

Ain't I fancy???

Cardboard Star

I've been noticing a lot of crafts using corrugated cardboard out there. I love a good recycle bin project, so I grabbed some cardboard and took the top layer off. Not knowing if it would turn out okay, I didn't take pictures. Memo To Self: Take Pictures.

I free handed a star on some scrapbook paper and cut it out.

Then I traced the star onto my ripped apart cardboard. I cut the cardboard star to be a little smaller and glued it on top of the paper star.

I apologize for photo inconsistencies...I can't figure out my camera!

Anyway, time to embellish!

I glued on a couple of buttons and I hot glued some twine to the back as a hanger.

And there my pretty little star is on the tree!

I'm thinking about making up some more and also doing some with the cardboard as the background and festive paper on the top.

We'll see. I've got a pile of gifts I still need to finish up. I'm feeling the Christmas Crunch!

Linking Up to Some or ALL of These Fantastic Parties!

Yarn Dipped Candy Canes

Okay. So the Candy Cane isn't really "dipped" in yarn. It's "wrapped" in yarn. Dipped sounds so much more yummy, though!

This was so easy to do! I found my inspiration HERE. To wrap the candy cane, I used a think yarn and started at the bottom. I wrapped it around and around to the tip and then I put a small dab of glue on the to hold it in place. Kat was watching me and when I was finished she asked in a horrified voice, "Where'd the candy cane go???" I promised her she could eat it after Christmas!

The white was cute...but my eyes strayed over to my DMC floss collection and I grabbed some red to make the crisscross pattern. I think it looks good enough to eat!

Simple. Effective. And it keeps us all from munching on all the real candy canes!

Paper Christmas Lollies!

Not sure why these are called Lollipops...other than they're round...but they sure are cute!

And so much fun to make!

I've got a ton of scrapbook paper socked away. For all those albums I'm going to make one day. But for today...I choose LOLLIES!

You can find the instructions at Craftaholics Anonymous. It kind of blew my mind, and I wasn't sure how it was going to work. But it did! And I love my new paper lollie ornament!!!

Personalized Wrapping Paper

I've been looking for some different and unique ways to do our Christmas wrapping. I'll admit part of the fun of ripping into a present is the crazy paper mess that's left over. Usually to be turned into projectiles...ending with someone getting poked in the eye.

Plus, I usually feel guilty when I look at the paper waste. And I feel ripped (pun intended) off at the store when I have to buy paper that will end up shredded anyway.

I've found a few new & funky ideas on Pinterest:

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I think we'll be doing a bit of both. I've got a few bolts of brown paper and a bolt of plain white paper. I love the idea of not having sticky or taped on gift tags!

This was all swirling in my mind this weekend when Louie had a Birthday gift to give one of his buddies. We were having a crazy run-around type weekend and I wanted him to have something calm and quieting to do. He had chosen his current favorite game (Battleship) as a gift, so I wrapped it in brown paper. Then I plunked down the markers and told him to decorate!

Not too shabby! Our oldest is not the most creative Block on the Quilt, so I was proud of his decorating skills!

The only thing I would have changed is adding one of these to the top!

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