Craft - Bendable Arms and Legs for Elf on the Shelf

Here’s wishing you a wonderful and memorable Holiday season!  I’ll finish my Blog off with a couple Elf on the Shelf posts.  Honestly, I’m not sure who had more fun with these elves – me or the granddaughters!

I performed a little elf surgery and in an hour, the girl’s elves can now do all kinds of acrobatic stuff as well as bench pressing marshmallows as I’ve seen on Pinterest! They can even grasp things!

Get your wire cutters and cut four pieces about 6.5” long of any kind of medium weight wire.  Set these aside.

Elf has stitching at his knee and elbow joints.  Remove the stitching.  This takes the longest to do.  Remove the stitch from his hand as well.

Snip a teeny tiny hole in the back of his foot about an inch from the bottom.

Straighten out a length of wire and curl one end.

Shove it into the elf limb.  You might have to wiggle it a little bit.

Get the wire in there as far as it will go.  Snip off the excess wire, leaving just a little bit sticking out.  Curl this end now.

Wiggle the last bit in by pulling the foot over it, so that it doesn’t come back out of the hole later.

Repeat for all limbs.  I squirted a bit of Fabri-Tac glue in the holes to close them but you could stitch them closed.  The rule is that the kids can’t touch the elf otherwise he loses his magic, so no biggie whether anything is done to the holes!

For his arms, I snipped in his hand – on the top front of one hand and the bottom of the other hand.  Inserted the wire as leg instructions then I used Fabri-Tac glue to apply Velcro that covered my holes.

You now have a bendy elf.  Go and pose him doing something fabulous!  You would think what you pay for an elf, they would have done this for you!

Here’s wishing you a wonderful and memorable Holiday season!  I’ll finish my Blog off with a couple Elf on the Shelf posts.  Honestly, I’m not sure who had more fun with these elves – me or the granddaughters!

I performed a little elf surgery and in an hour, the girl’s elves can now do all kinds of acrobatic stuff as well as bench pressing marshmallows as I’ve seen on Pinterest! They can even grasp things!

Get your wire cutters and cut four pieces about 6.5” long of any kind of medium weight wire.  Set these aside.

Elf has stitching at his knee and elbow joints.  Remove the stitching.  This takes the longest to do.  Remove the stitch from his hand as well.

Snip a teeny tiny hole in the back of his foot about an inch from the bottom.

Straighten out a length of wire and curl one end.

Shove it into the elf limb.  You might have to wiggle it a little bit.

Get the wire in there as far as it will go.  Snip off the excess wire, leaving just a little bit sticking out.  Curl this end now.

Wiggle the last bit in by pulling the foot over it, so that it doesn’t come back out of the hole later.

Repeat for all limbs.  I squirted a bit of Fabri-Tac glue in the holes to close them but you could stitch them closed.  The rule is that the kids can’t touch the elf otherwise he loses his magic, so no biggie whether anything is done to the holes!

For his arms, I snipped in his hand – on the top front of one hand and the bottom of the other hand.  Inserted the wire as leg instructions then I used Fabri-Tac glue to apply Velcro that covered my holes.

You now have a bendy elf.  Go and pose him doing something fabulous!  You would think what you pay for an elf, they would have done this for you!

Craft – Pool Noodle Card Holder

 

My little guy loves to play cards especially Old Maid but the cards are too much for his little hands.  Here is a solution I found on Pinterest.

 

All you need is a pool noodle and a serrated knife.

The Pool Noodle I bought was 58” long.  You could cut it in four 14.5” pieces and have 8 card holders if you want. Cut down through the foam at the 14.5” mark using a serrated knife.

Now slice lengthwise through the center of the piece to make two halves.

 

 

Try to stay in the middle so both halves are equal.

 

 

Set the noodle, flat side down. Drag your serrated knife along the top of each half, slightly angling the knife.  Allow the blade to cut only 1/4 - 1/2" deep to create the slot.  Repeat another slot slightly ahead of the first slot.

 

 

Place the holder, flat side down, on a table and simply slide the cards into the slot.

Oh great - guess who was dealt the Old Maid!!

 

 

So much more fun to play cards now!

 

My little guy loves to play cards especially Old Maid but the cards are too much for his little hands.  Here is a solution I found on Pinterest.

 

All you need is a pool noodle and a serrated knife.

The Pool Noodle I bought was 58” long.  You could cut it in four 14.5” pieces and have 8 card holders if you want. Cut down through the foam at the 14.5” mark using a serrated knife.

Now slice lengthwise through the center of the piece to make two halves.

 

 

Try to stay in the middle so both halves are equal.

 

 

Set the noodle, flat side down. Drag your serrated knife along the top of each half, slightly angling the knife.  Allow the blade to cut only 1/4 - 1/2" deep to create the slot.  Repeat another slot slightly ahead of the first slot.

 

 

Place the holder, flat side down, on a table and simply slide the cards into the slot.

Oh great - guess who was dealt the Old Maid!!

 

 

So much more fun to play cards now!

Craft - A Quick Yarn Pompom

 

Cut a piece of yarn about 12” long and set aside.  Wrap yarn around your middle and index fingers about 30 times.

With the yarn still on your fingers, wrap the 12” around the pompom in between your fingers.  Tie once loosely.

 

Replace your fingers with a pencil at both ends.  Now, tie the 12” yarn tightly around in a double knot.

 

Follow the pencil with your scissors, remove the pencil and cut the loops.  Repeat with the other pencil.

 

Fluff carefully.  Trim with scissors if any yarn pieces are hanging out awkwardly.  This made about a 3” pompom using Boa yarn by Bernat.

 

 

Cut a piece of yarn about 12” long and set aside.  Wrap yarn around your middle and index fingers about 30 times.

With the yarn still on your fingers, wrap the 12” around the pompom in between your fingers.  Tie once loosely.

 

Replace your fingers with a pencil at both ends.  Now, tie the 12” yarn tightly around in a double knot.

 

Follow the pencil with your scissors, remove the pencil and cut the loops.  Repeat with the other pencil.

 

Fluff carefully.  Trim with scissors if any yarn pieces are hanging out awkwardly.  This made about a 3” pompom using Boa yarn by Bernat.

 

Craft - Popsicle Sticks and Paint

Do you ever find yourself shopping for fabrics, furniture and accessories for your home and wish that you had your paint colors with you to refer to?  Here’s a good tip for that.  Paint one side of a Popsicle stick the color of your room.  Let dry then apply a second coat.  Write the color name and brand of your paint on the backside of the stick.  Do this for every color you use in your house.  Throw them in your purse and you’re good to go!

I knew this trick from years ago but never remembered to do it.  I’m trying really hard to do it with our newly purchased house since we are painting every room it seems!  Since the ensuite and our bedroom are complete, I went looking for towels, soap dish and a toothbrush holder.  When I first walked into the towel section, I headed straight to the color of towels I thought the room was painted and then brought out my handy dandy Popsicle sticks.  Boy was I wrong!  There were so far off, I couldn’t believe it!  With my sticks, I was able to find the right colors.

I wanted something in the beige line for the soap dish and toothbrush holder.  No problem!  This one:

 

Or this one?

 

 

Isn’t it great to learn about good tips!

Speaking of our house, the addition and the single car garage are up and shingled.  I have a bonus room above the garage for my sewing and crafts.  I had the guys make the stairs a little wider to allow for a chair lift should I need one someday.  The electrician and plumber are basically done so we are ready to start insulating etc.

 

My 9 year grandson even made me a step to get into the house!

Do you ever find yourself shopping for fabrics, furniture and accessories for your home and wish that you had your paint colors with you to refer to?  Here’s a good tip for that.  Paint one side of a Popsicle stick the color of your room.  Let dry then apply a second coat.  Write the color name and brand of your paint on the backside of the stick.  Do this for every color you use in your house.  Throw them in your purse and you’re good to go!

I knew this trick from years ago but never remembered to do it.  I’m trying really hard to do it with our newly purchased house since we are painting every room it seems!  Since the ensuite and our bedroom are complete, I went looking for towels, soap dish and a toothbrush holder.  When I first walked into the towel section, I headed straight to the color of towels I thought the room was painted and then brought out my handy dandy Popsicle sticks.  Boy was I wrong!  There were so far off, I couldn’t believe it!  With my sticks, I was able to find the right colors.

I wanted something in the beige line for the soap dish and toothbrush holder.  No problem!  This one:

 

Or this one?

 

 

Isn’t it great to learn about good tips!

Speaking of our house, the addition and the single car garage are up and shingled.  I have a bonus room above the garage for my sewing and crafts.  I had the guys make the stairs a little wider to allow for a chair lift should I need one someday.  The electrician and plumber are basically done so we are ready to start insulating etc.

 

My 9 year grandson even made me a step to get into the house!

Craft - Shower Ring Scarf Holder

 

Boy oh boy … can a guy spend a lot of time on Pinterest eh?  So many smart and talented people!  I want to share this scarf holder I found.  So simple!  All you need is a package of Shower Curtain rings.

 

Hook the rings on to a hanger from your closet.  Now all my scarves can be stored in one place!

 

 

And there you have it!  A perfect solution for storing scarves!

 

Boy oh boy … can a guy spend a lot of time on Pinterest eh?  So many smart and talented people!  I want to share this scarf holder I found.  So simple!  All you need is a package of Shower Curtain rings.

 

Hook the rings on to a hanger from your closet.  Now all my scarves can be stored in one place!

 

 

And there you have it!  A perfect solution for storing scarves!

Craft - Barrette and Hair Bow Holder

 

Now that we have all these fancy hair bows and headbands done, we need a place to store them.   I also noticed that my granddaughters were quite often digging through cluttered, unorganized drawers in search of the right hair accessory so thought I would help out!  Pinterest has several ideas for these but most of them don’t give the instructions on how they did them. This is what I did:

I disassembled a picture frame, saving all pieces as I might need them later.  For those of you that know her, Porter gave me this frame as well as many others.  Can’t believe she parted with a farm picture!!

 

Measure where to place the hooks.   I started at ½ inch from each end then 2 inches apart.  I knew that the measurements would be off because I was using only 8 hooks so I did four hook measurements from each side that way they would be perfectly even. That just meant the space in between the 4th and 5th hook would be a tad bigger (3″) – that’s ok as I want to make loops to hold some hard headbands.

 

 I started each hole with a nail which made it easy to screw the cup hooks in place. These hooks hold pony tail elastics, soft headbands, poofy pony tail holders etc.

 

I used pliers to help tighten the hooks.

 

Then I took my frame to the garage to spray paint.  I set it on wax paper so that I wouldn’t have trouble with it sticking.

 

I only painted the front and sides as I didn’t see the point of painting the back.

 

 

I also spray painted the cardboard part of the frame backing - the one that came with the frame.

 

I saw these loops to hold the hard headbands on the SaiFou Image blog.  I wanted  to make a few of these.  I am working at both ends of the ribbon so remove the spool.  I will be making a third one too.  Seal the ends with a lighter.

 

 

Put a pin at 1.5” from bottom.

 

Make a fold at the pin.
 

 

From the edge that has been sealed, put another pin at 1.5” away from it.

 

 

Fold on that pin to meet the sealed end.

 

From that fold, put another pin at 1.5”, fold on it etc until you have however many hard headband holders you want.

 

Sew the top folds down.

 

And here they are finished.

 

The long ends of your frame are the top – run your ribbons from top to bottom and space them out the way you want them. My board is 14” wide so I marked a center line, a line from each side at 1.5” and two more lines at 2.75” from each end line.  I stuck pins on each line in case my marks didn’t show up for you.

 

Measure up from the top loop at about 2”.
 

 

Match those pins with the bottom of the board.  Tack in place with pins.

 

Remove pins from the bottom of the board and set the board in the frame.  Use scotch tape to hold the top tails in place.  Don’t pull the ribbons too tight as you need a little give so you can clip your hair bows on.
 

Remove from frame.  Flip the bottom ribbons out of your way.  Add a touch of glue.  Replace the ribbon and let dry.

 

I placed a 5/8” piece of grosgrain ribbon on top of two pieces of the blue for the reminder of the holder.  Just remember to seal all cut ends of the ribbon.

Scotch tape the tops of these to the board.  Tape the bottom of the blue pieces to the back of the board too.  I am going to leave the smaller ribbons dandling for extra clips.

 

Add a dab of glue on the frame where each ribbon touches it at the bottom and let dry.

 

Because we no longer have the thickness of the mirror, I cut strips of 1” packaging cardstock to take up the slack.  I had to use a double thickness.  I glued the pieces together as well as to the back then pushed the pins back in place.
 

Now you can remove the scotch tape from the back.  Trim and seal your ribbons then glue them securely to the back.

 

If desired, simply cut out a piece of cardboard or cardstock and place into the back of the frame to hide your high tech finishing method!  I left mine as is – if it is hanging on the wall, no one will see the back I figure.
 

 

 

Now that we have all these fancy hair bows and headbands done, we need a place to store them.   I also noticed that my granddaughters were quite often digging through cluttered, unorganized drawers in search of the right hair accessory so thought I would help out!  Pinterest has several ideas for these but most of them don’t give the instructions on how they did them. This is what I did:

I disassembled a picture frame, saving all pieces as I might need them later.  For those of you that know her, Porter gave me this frame as well as many others.  Can’t believe she parted with a farm picture!!

 

Measure where to place the hooks.   I started at ½ inch from each end then 2 inches apart.  I knew that the measurements would be off because I was using only 8 hooks so I did four hook measurements from each side that way they would be perfectly even. That just meant the space in between the 4th and 5th hook would be a tad bigger (3″) – that’s ok as I want to make loops to hold some hard headbands.

 

 I started each hole with a nail which made it easy to screw the cup hooks in place. These hooks hold pony tail elastics, soft headbands, poofy pony tail holders etc.

 

I used pliers to help tighten the hooks.

 

Then I took my frame to the garage to spray paint.  I set it on wax paper so that I wouldn’t have trouble with it sticking.

 

I only painted the front and sides as I didn’t see the point of painting the back.

 

 

I also spray painted the cardboard part of the frame backing - the one that came with the frame.

 

I saw these loops to hold the hard headbands on the SaiFou Image blog.  I wanted  to make a few of these.  I am working at both ends of the ribbon so remove the spool.  I will be making a third one too.  Seal the ends with a lighter.

 

 

Put a pin at 1.5” from bottom.

 

Make a fold at the pin.
 

 

From the edge that has been sealed, put another pin at 1.5” away from it.

 

 

Fold on that pin to meet the sealed end.

 

From that fold, put another pin at 1.5”, fold on it etc until you have however many hard headband holders you want.

 

Sew the top folds down.

 

And here they are finished.

 

The long ends of your frame are the top – run your ribbons from top to bottom and space them out the way you want them. My board is 14” wide so I marked a center line, a line from each side at 1.5” and two more lines at 2.75” from each end line.  I stuck pins on each line in case my marks didn’t show up for you.

 

Measure up from the top loop at about 2”.
 

 

Match those pins with the bottom of the board.  Tack in place with pins.

 

Remove pins from the bottom of the board and set the board in the frame.  Use scotch tape to hold the top tails in place.  Don’t pull the ribbons too tight as you need a little give so you can clip your hair bows on.
 

Remove from frame.  Flip the bottom ribbons out of your way.  Add a touch of glue.  Replace the ribbon and let dry.

 

I placed a 5/8” piece of grosgrain ribbon on top of two pieces of the blue for the reminder of the holder.  Just remember to seal all cut ends of the ribbon.

Scotch tape the tops of these to the board.  Tape the bottom of the blue pieces to the back of the board too.  I am going to leave the smaller ribbons dandling for extra clips.

 

Add a dab of glue on the frame where each ribbon touches it at the bottom and let dry.

 

Because we no longer have the thickness of the mirror, I cut strips of 1” packaging cardstock to take up the slack.  I had to use a double thickness.  I glued the pieces together as well as to the back then pushed the pins back in place.
 

Now you can remove the scotch tape from the back.  Trim and seal your ribbons then glue them securely to the back.

 

If desired, simply cut out a piece of cardboard or cardstock and place into the back of the frame to hide your high tech finishing method!  I left mine as is – if it is hanging on the wall, no one will see the back I figure.