Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Party

I am seeing so many amazing ideas 

for the Elf on the Shelf

I would love to collect them here in one place!

 So, I'm going to share our own Elf's antics, 

share the great ideas I find on Pinterest,

and I'm asking you to share your own ideas 

in this Elf on Shelf link party!

Our own elf here at Come Together Kids

• Meet our Elf, Haddihat Foofer

• Join our Elf for Breakfast

• See what our Elf did for Week 1

• See how the fun continued for Week 2

Elf Ideas I've found on Pinterest

• Ideas from parenting.com
• great pictures at this photography blog, Rae of Light
• a calendar of elf ideas at The Party Dress
• 100 Ideas for Elf Mischief at Design Dazzle
• 101 Elf Ideas at Blossom Bunkhouse

Now share your elf ideas in our Link Party
(Don't have a blog?  Just share your ideas in the comments below
or post on our Facebook page)

A few guidelines for this link party:

1.  Please link to your specific blog post relating to the ELF on the SHELF ~ it can be the classic elf, a stuffed one, or your own version, as long as he or she spreads Christmas magic this time of year.

(You can link up as many posts as you'd like, as long as they relate to the theme!)  

2.  Stop by a few other links while you're here.  I'm not going to say it has to be the one right before you or after you, but take a couple minutes to be inspired by the creativity of others.  (and take few more seconds to leave a comment, it can really make a blogger's day!)

3.  Finally, the more people who link up to this party, the better it will be.  Please help me spread the word by linking back either with a text link or by grabbing a button. (coming soon)

Easy Christmas Tree Shirts

Last year, the kids and I made these 

cute Christmas Tree shirts.  

As with most of the stuff we do, 

they were easy and inexpensive.  

Plus, the kids had fun making them 

and they turned out pretty cute too!

 

Here's what you need:

• plain red shirt ( I like using the inexpensive t-shirts from the craft stores for our seasonal shirts)
• some green, brown and yellow cotton fabrics (scraps are fine, as long as the green piece at least 6-8" big)
• iron on adhesive ( I usually use Heat n Bond Ultra Hold )
• yellow and white fabric paint
• q-tips

Here's what to do:  

1.  Iron your adhesive to the wrong side of your green fabric.

2.  Cut out a triangle shape for your tree.  The size will depend on the size of your shirt.  You'll want it a little bit smaller than you'll want your finished tree.  (I used pinking sheers to cut mine for the pine needle effect, but you can use regular scissors too!).  Next, draw a few diagonal lines on on the tree and number each smaller shape.

(Please ignore the nasty looking ironing board cover,
I really only use my iron for craft stuff!)

3.  Next cut apart the smaller triangles, reassemble your tree on your shirt leaving a small space (about 1/2") between each triangle piece.  Do NOT peel off the paper backing yet and use those numbers as a guide so you know which piece goes where.  (Don't ask me how I know that it's nearly impossible to try to reassemble a bunch of triangle pieces without any numbers to show which piece goes which way! ;)  )

4.  Once you have all the pieces arranged to form the tree, peel off the paper backing and iron in place.

5.  Using your scraps of brown and yellow fabrics and the iron on adhesive, cut a small brown tree trunk and yellow star and add them to your tree.  

(Oops, no picture of this part, but I know you can figure it out)

6.  Next, using your fabric paint and a q-tip, add a string of lights in the space you created when reassembling your triangles.  My kids chose to use a combination of yellow and white dots, but you can do any colors.

 

That's it!  Allow your painted lights to dry then wear your new Christmas Tree shirt with pride!

You can even wear them when you go visit Santa 

and impress him with your handiwork.

Sharing our tree at:

I heart Naptime 
Craft-O-Maniac 
Under the Table and Dreaming 
Skip to my Lou 
Making the World Cuter 
Tatertots and Jello

Awesome Amazon Deal ~ Scholastic DVD collection

I know I'm not a "deals" blog, and I don't plan on turning into one. (there are too many other good ones out there).  However, when I was just doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon I came across this awesome deal on this Scholastic DVD Collection.  I bought my kids an earlier version of this collection with many of the same stories a few years ago and they LOVED it.  I liked that so many of our favorite books and authors were now in video form ~ we could read the actual stories and then when they wanted to watch a DVD, they could watch an animated version too.  The "animation" varies from story to story ~ sometimes it was just panning across the printed page, sometimes the characters on the page moved a bit, sometimes it was fully animated ~ but they liked them all just the same.  Oh, and many of the stories had a "read-along" option too where the text was displayed along with the narration (great practice for beginning readers!)

Anyway, Amazon now has it on sale for 66% off, making the whole collection just $33.99!!  For 17 DVD's and 100 stories, that's a great bargain for your kids or classroom!!  I know Amazon prices will fluctuate a bit, but hopefully it'll stay this price for a while so others can grab the deal.

Okay, enough of my bargain tips I'll be back later on today with a cute Christmas shirt my kids made last year.