Getting Crafty With Christmas Elf Ornaments

“He’s a South Pole Elf” ~ Elf

Me? Crafting?

I know what you ALL are thinking! Kate I thought you didn’t craft? Well miracles do happen and it is the season for miracles and Christmas brings the crafty out in me (remember last years attempts at painting?) thus I attempted to do a craft with my nephews and niece, which also happens to be an age old tradition, well it will be eventually since it was begun by my siblings, who learned it in school, and then taught me, and I have now passed it on to my nephews and niece and they are obsessed with it so that counts as tradition right?

Right! I am just gonna go with that! I actually feel like this first attempt was not bad, on my part, and pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. My nephews and niece certainly had fun! And that IS all that matters! I do feel like Elf on The Shelf needs to move aside, because there are new bad A elves in town, in the form of these felt elves.

Felt Elves

Being crafting challenged these actually are REALLY easy to make. The hardest part is NOT burning yourself on the glue gun, which I kinda failed at. But we win some and lose some and I am just happy they look like elves as opposes to scary Christmas aliens.

What you need to make them:

You can find. everything on your local Walmart or Craft Store

~Red, white and/or green felt

~pipe cleaners, the glittery the better

~A hot glue gun

~Ribbon, glitter, anything to bedazzle your elves.

How to make them:

Being one hundred percent truthful, I kinda winged it. It was oh at LEAST two decades ago when I made them with my sister, so any patterns we may have used are probably long distant Christmas memories, buried with that easy bake oven. That being said, it was surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it. I did use a couple of the OG elves as tracers, but really I just let the scissors do the talking, which worked shockingly well.

The first thing we did was shape the pipe cleaners into people leaving room for arms and legs. I then cut out a tunic or dress which was essentially a large triangle with a more square bodice, as well as oval pieces for booties and a large lopsided triangle for the hat which also serves as the head. When cutting your felt, you also want to remember fold it over so you are cutting two identical pieces that match.

Once we chose our pieces and colors, I then glued the felt to the pipe cleaners and let that dry, as the kiddos then chose how they wanted to bedazzle the elves. I then glued the blinged out accessories on them and we let them dry before putting them on the tree. You can also print pictures out and put family members pictures on the elves, which the OG’s have.

A Fun Christmas Craft

I mean really, I feel like I need to rejoin Pinterest with this. Going aside, it IS a fun easy Christmas craft to do with kids on a cold day, and it also makes for a great gift especially if you add a picture. The mess was none existent, as we made the elves on paper plates for quick clean-up, and so the glue did not get everywhere. The kiddos had so much fun making these elves that they actually wanted to make several.

For someone who is NOT crafty, once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to do, and my seven year old nephew even picked it up pretty easily, then again he also got the artist gene which I did not get. It was not only a nice walk down memory lane, but I loved that I could share these memories with my nephews and niece. Not to mention our Christmas tree is even MORE decked out with the addition of these new elves.