Posted on December 18, 2012 by Kara

Elf on a Shelf Christmas Party

I just couldn’t resist sharing another ELF ON THE SHELF HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS PARTY! This lovely party was submitted by Audrey Novak of Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats. Oh my goodness, there are so many adorable ideas here! Scroll through the photos slowly so you don’t miss anything & be sure and read all the party details from Audrey at the bottom of the post!

Event Styling, Photography, Dessert Table Treats- Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats
Magical Elf Christmas Collection, printables- Anders Ruff Custom Designs
Custom Elf Stockings, Table Runners, Pennant Banner- Puddin’ Pies
Custom Decorated Sugar Cookies- Emi’s Treats
Minatures (layer cake, cupcakes, pennant banner, stocking)- Little Things By Anna
Elf-sized baking set, apron, oven mitt, and chef’s hat- BJWildey
Custom children’s clothing, Christmas dress, applique shirt and cardigan- Lottie Da Baby

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Striped Paper Straws
Lollipop Sticks
Cupcake Liners
Washi Tape
Ribbon

Audrey said this about planning the party- ”So…I have a little confession. I’m ELF OBSESSED. Seriously. It’s one of those things that started innocently enough, as a family tradition YEARS in the making, but has now taken on a life of its own. I can’t control it, or at least I choose NOT to. But I do find comfort in the thousands of Elf-tastic pins on Pinterest and the incessant Elf-related Facebook posts of my friends…it’s nice to know I’m not alone!

We’ve had some vintage Christmas Elves in our family for years. We call them our Disco Elves because they (there are 3 of them) are wearing shiny, metallic outfits and look like they’re ready to party ALL the time. My Grandma used to tell us they were watching us and would tell Santa if we were being naughty…not sure if word ever got back to him about any of the “nice” stuff. Last year we added an Elf on the Shelf to our collection, the kiddos named him Mack, and our little Elf family was complete. The kids love waking up in the morning and rushing out to see what shenanigans the elves have gotten into…it’s become one of their favorite things, and mine too.

I’ve been mulling over the idea of hosting an ELF PARTY since LAST Christmas. SO many of our friends have Elves now too, I knew the kids would really be into it.

So that’s the WHY…and here is ALL the rest! I hope you enjoy!

I worked with the talented ladies of Anders Ruff Custom Designs for the printables. They totally “GOT” my vision and their creations were absolutely perfect! You can see their own photo shoot featuring this printable line HERE.

Since our guest list was very short for this party, I planned on hand delivering all the invites. I printed the invitations large, 8×10, rolled them up and tied with a ribbon. We all know that the Number 1 Rule when it comes to Christmas Elves is you CANNOT touch them…or they lose their magic! To solve that problem, each guest also received an Elf-sized stocking. This way they could come along without being touched!

When our guests arrived they were directed to the “Elf Check-in” area. Each Elf had a name tag waiting for him or her…we didn’t want anyone going home with the wrong Elf! After the kiddos deposited their Elves and went downstairs, the Elves jumped out of their stockings, put on their name tags and had their own little Mixer.

At our ELF ADOPTION center, we had several Elves just waiting to find their own family! Some of our guests added another Elf to their family, and one family got their very FIRST Elf at our party. I also had some Elf attire available for our guests to take home. Included were pretty skirt-sets and bows for the lady elves. We also had some tiny Elf scarves that were a BIG hit with our guests!

I knew the desserts for this party were going to be a LOT of fun. With so many teeny-tiny guests, I planned on making some mini-versions of some of our favorite treats! I made Elf Cake Pops and Swirl Cake Pops. I love using the striped paper straws as “sticks” for my Cake Pops…it really adds something special! I also made some MINI Cake Pops. These are REAL Cake Pops ya’ll. I rolled them super small, used a cut-off toothpick as the stick, and then dipped them just like the full-size pops. Easy. Cute. Good. So then, I wanted a bit of a challenge – lol! I thought it would be fun to try to make mini versions of the Elf Cake Pops too. I used a toothpick to add-on the details, but they were pretty basic so it wasn’t too bad. Totally worth the extra effort…they were SO cute! Local Cookie artist Emily of Emi’s Treats made some AMAZING cookies for our party. She created a “Peeking Elf” design that I just loved…it was beyond perfect! She also made stockings, mittens and candy canes. Emily’s cookies are equal parts delicious and adorable, I just love her work! Even cuter…she made MINI cookies for our Elf guests too! They were SO sweet! When we were all downstairs, each of the Elves helped themselves to a cookie…they were a BIG hit with our littlest guests. We also had some ridiculously cute miniatures on the dessert table! Little Things by Anna created the TINY layered cake and TEENSY cupcakes. Seriously, these things are SO adorable and incredibly detailed…I can’t lie…I squealed OUT-LOUD when I opened the box they were shipped in.

My sister volunteered to read The Elf on the Shelf to the kiddos while I was upstairs making sure our Elf guests were “comfortable”. We had a few activity stations set-up for the kiddos. They were free to go from one to the other at their own pace. First was the Jingle Bell Bracelet table. A tray of pipe cleaners, a container full of jingle bells…easy…and they loved it. Even better, after they finished their bracelets they got to go jump in the trampoline to hear how they sounded. We also had a mini tree decorating station. You know the drill…a package of foam Christmas trees, with about a million little sticker pieces to peel and place. A little cheesy maybe, but I tell ya what…my kids NEVER get sick of these things! Like ever…so I go with it! There was also a table full of Elf-sizes treats. The kids got to pick out an assortment of goodies to “take-home” for their Elves. That was the idea. In reality, most of them chowed-down on their Elves goodies…I’m sure it was from a quality control standpoint. Each of the guests had the chance, one-by-one, to put on an apron and join me in my kitchen to make a few EXTRA special Elf treats. I had three melters going, one with chocolate, white chocolate and green candy melts. They got to dip a mini sugar cookie, mini Oreo and a Cheerio (to make an Elf donut). I also had an assortment of sprinkles out so they could decorate their creations however they chose!

Word must have got out at the North Pole because we had a LOT of Elves show-up for this party. They were hiding ALL over the house! The kiddos went on an ELF HUNT to find all of our Elfish visitors. I used the printable Advent Calendar Tags from Anders Ruff (1 through 5) to label our “scenes”. That way the kids knew they had 5 different Elves (or in some cases, groups of Elves) to find. They did a great job hunting!

When it was time for our guests to head for home, I used a pair of decorated kitchen tongs to carefully put each Elf in a basket for the ride home (the stockings are a tight squeeze and we didn’t want to risk any accidental touching!) The kids, Elves and grown-ups all had a GREAT time at our Elf Party! The Christmas season is so magical, and being able to create these memories, to me, really is priceless. If you’re into the whole ELF-thing, be sure to follow me on Facebook! I post a lot of our Elves daily shenanigans there…frequently…too much…I know I have a problem.”

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Striped Paper Straws
Lollipop Sticks
Cupcake Liners
Washi Tape
Ribbon

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Kara

Elf on the Shelf North Pole Breakfast

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What a darling idea! Host an ELF ON THE SHELF NORTH POLE BREAKFAST PARTY! This adorable idea was submitted by Kylie Jenkins of Made by a Princess Parties in Style.

Kylie said this about planning the party- “Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? We have two now…Icicle who watches over my son Glenn and Snowy who keeps an eye on my daughter Megan. This year we hosted a North Pole Breakfast the day after Thanksgiving to kick this Christmas season off right!

Our elves came with lots of fun stuff this year…their own North Pole, gingerbread houses (which I am sure they will hide in eventually), goodies, wish lists, Emergency Elf Dust, candy cane placecard holders, books, countdown to Christmas…boy, those elves were sure busy. Did I ever mention I’m actually a vampire and never sleep?!

I found mini lunch boxes at Dollar Tree and filled them with special elf food to share: Elf Pillows, Snowballs, and Reindeer Poop. Each packet has an original poem (won’t find them anywhere else!) on the back of the candy topper.

I anticipate a little elf handling with my 19 month old so I came up with the perfect magical solution…Emergency Elf Dust! This is another original poem you won’t find anywhere else. The tiny little vials actually held saffron. I knew I kept those cute little things for a reason!

The little North Pole in the background was made out of a solar light, styrofoam circle, & “snow” blanket from the Dollar Tree. I glued gold spray painted flat dowels to the pole and attached the sign with gold ribbon. I saw this on Apartment Therapy and knew I had to do one myself. I also bought a bunch of Santa hats last month at the Dollar Tree…super inexpensive and easy window valance!

I attempted cookie cutter pancakes but need a little more practice. Oh well, at least they tasted good! The Magical Scout Elf printables are available in my store.”

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Kara

Elf on the Shelf Christmas Party

This next feature makes me so excited for Christmas! How darling is this ELF ON THE SHELF HOLIDAY PARTY submitted by Donna Martin of Swish Designs!

Donna said this about planning the party- “I’m SO very excited to introduce my new line of printables which were photographed by the SUPER talented Katie of KT Moffitt Photography. The concept is definitely not new! We have loved Joey (our elf) since he first came to visit our house a few years ago. The wonder and excitement in my kids’ eyes is just part of the magic of the holiday season. Wondering where he will hide next….what kind of mischief will he find…will he tell Santa if the kids have been good or bad? Sometimes our elf, Joey, brings sweets, presents, and other little goodies. With my new printables, it’s EASY to praise your kids for being on the “nice” list! Sometimes our little ones need a little “re-direction” after rough day the day before. And sometimes it’s just the Elf that’s the naughty one!

Our elf journey begins with a special breakfast on the first day. This year he’ll arrive with a little welcome note along with his traditional gifts of new Christmas jammies for both kids. The welcome notes are customized with the name of your elf. It comes in both a boy version and girl version.

If you’re interested in the full printable collection, it’s available in my Etsy shop for just $16.50. PLUS, Kara’s readers can save an additional 15% by using KARAROCKS when they check out through Etsy!”

Vendors and Credits:
Photography- Katie Moffit of KT Moffitt Photography
Party Styling and Printables- Swish Designs

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Lollipop Sticks
Cupcake Liners
Ribbon

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Kara

Magic Elf Christmas Party

This MAGIC ELF CHRISTMAS PARTY was submitted by Maureen Anders of Anders Ruff. WHAT a cute party! I just love all the special elf touches! The little elf on the shelf is just darling, too! So many Christmas decorating ideas here…including darling ways to wrap gifts!

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Baker’s Twine
Cupcake Liners
Chevron Paper Bags Striped Paper Straws
Clear Favor Boxes
Gumballs
Whirly Pops
Clear Cellophane Bags
Decorative Paper Shred
Candy Sticks
Polka Dot Nut / Candy Cups
Ribbon

Here is what Maureen had to say about planning the party- ”The magic of the “magical” Christmas Elf is a tradition that my family has enjoyed for years. After all, how can Santa possibly watch over all little boys and girls? Our sweet little Japanese knee hugger elves are so precious and this year our holiday party was themed around their magic.

Adria and I always listen to Christmas music when we are designing – no matter what time of year. Can you tell that Christmas is our favorite holiday to design and style for? Our fabulous friend and client, Audrey, of Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats brought us the i dea of focusing on the Magical Elf tradition and we loved it. This year we wanted to design and style a Magic Elf Christmas Party and incorporate lots of printables that people can enjoy and add to their traditions with their own Magic elves every year.

STYLING & DECOR
The party boasts the traditional red and green colors with added pops of aqua and light blue. The printables include classic patterns such as candy cane stripe with mixes of trendy chevron, ditzy dot and snow flake patterns.

We setup the party at the corner base of Adria’s stairwell which gave us a lot of flexibility with hanging decorations as well as the wall space. Also, stairwells always remind me of Christmas morning as we waited to be called down to see what Santa had brought us! Especially once we hung the garland and custom elf feet shaped stockings (from Aimee Broussard) to the railing.

When thinking of what elements and textures to tie into the styling, we immediately knew we had to use yarn to keep with the “feel” of those cute little elves and keep the decor playful and whimsical. We utilized the yarn thoughout the decor on the tree (yarn pom ornaments) as well as the Christmas gift packaging and Sugarbelle cookie displays (using the popular and so functional Blumeboxes!).

We thought of a craft that would help make our printable Christmas Posters (the set of 3 printable posters are available in the shop) really pop off the walls. We cut custom frames out of foam core board and wrapped them with yarn. This was a super simple (just a little time consuming) craft and one that was economical and made a big impact. We cut felt holly leaves and placed those as an embellishment on one of the frames with yarn pom “berries.”

Because elves are sometimes mischievous, we got a little crazy with the fun yarn pom string and dangled it around the tree and hung from the frames and doors. Little knee hugger elves were found all over the party to tie the theme back into the decor. They can be seen stuck in the gorgeous custom stockings (from Aimee Broussard Events), in the tree, on the frames, hanging from the yarn garland and tucked in the drawers.

When thinking of little elf treats, we decided to reuse an old pop bottle crate as a display for little treats. We spray painted it a bright blue to add a pop of color on the display. We filled it with green rock candy, red licorice, little containers of naughty and nice treats, lollipops, meringue elf hats (which we made!) and little printable notes to Santa. We placed some plastic (kid-friendly!) drink bottles from Smash Cake Studio filled with milk on top of the display with a printable wrapper and straw.

Keeping with the elf tradition, we wanted to show “naughty” and “nice” treats. We packaged red and white Sixlets in clear containers (from Nashville Wraps) and put our printable “Nice” label. We packaged black gumballs in the other clear containers and added the printable “Naughty” labels on those. These were placed around the table and on the cola bottle crate.

We also reused old card catalog drawers as displays for “naughty” and “nice” treats and labeled them with the appropriate printable party logos. The “naughty” treats included black rock candy, black licorice wheels, black gumballs and homemade “coal” (flatted marshmallows dipped in black chocolate and sprinkles). The “nice” treats included red and green ribbon candy, lollipops, gumballs and candy canes.

On top of those drawers, we put a drawer on its side and lined it with patterned paper. We then made green Meringue Christmas Tree treats and placed them on baking cups (from Smash Cake Studio) that we trimmed and put upside down to add height. We also wrapped an old $1 store mailbox with red yarn and used it as “Santa’s Magic Mailbox” display where the kids could put notes to Santa which were printables from the collection.

The Christmas tree was decorated with various sized yarn pom ornaments. We had the kids help us make these in the colors from the printables. We also strung the white yarn pom string around the tree as garland.

Last year we featured our printable North Pole mitten advent calendar idea and this year we introduced a new idea for an Advent Calendar – printable Advent Calendar Hangtags that fold closed and can be used for ornaments (write activities for your family to do each day of advent! Arden enjoyed opening the one that said “eat pancakes for dinner”!) Get creative and come up with 25 fun activites to do with family. Another use for the Advent Calendar Hangtags could be to wrap small gifts and place them hidden around the house or tree – each day of advent they can open the appropriate gift. This year I am doing 25 new books to help add to our library!

We also wrap ped several gifts for under the tree with yarn. We added our printable tags from the magical elf collection. The collection includes “insepcted by elf #” tags as well as cute santa tags and elf tags. We think the elf tags would be so much fun to use every year.

Another craft was the yarn and patterned paper Christmas Trees. Those were so fun to make and we layered yarn and scraps of our patterned paper to make adorable tree decorations.

Cookies for Santa were left on a plate and a diy cake stand (wood plaque + candle stick base) with a little printable note. How amazing are the Elf cookies by Sugarbelle!?

Adria’s holiday card was hung on the tree, too. We designed our signature holiday photo hangtag Christmas card to match the elf theme. We trimmed and punched a hole and added The Twinery twine to the tag and hung as part of the decor on the tree.

FASHION
The kids came to the party wearing a dress and a tie from B. Bell e Couture. Arden was wearing a precious snowflake hair accessory from Drop of Honey Bowtique. Later, the kids got cozy in custom pajamas by Great Stitch that featured embroidery based on designs from our Magical Elf printables. They loved them! I especially love finding unique and special pajamas for my kids to wear on Christmas eve and these were perfect!

THE DESSERTS
We enlisted help from a few fabulous bakers. Got What It Cakes made festive snow cone mini cupcakes (that we displayed in printable party cones out of the dresser drawer). Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats made whimsical cake pops that were stuck on paper straws, which were perfectly displayed next to a magical elf in the other dresser drawer.

The amazingly talented Sugarbellemade gorgeous elf and christmas gift sugar cookies. We displayed those gift sugar cookie pops out of fun Blumeboxes that we wrapped with pom yarn garland. We also displayed reindeer chocolate pops from Nicoles Treats o ut of the Blumeboxes. They looked so precious and festive and were an unexpected way to show the treats.

Favor boxes were shown with green candies and a white chocolate reindeer pop from Nicoles Treats and tagged up with a cute printable.

The desserts we made included the Elf Hat Meringues and the Christmas Tree Meringues. Those were so simple to make and the kids loved them! They added to the fun decor as well.

THE PRINTABLES
The printable Magic Elf Christmas party invitation, banner, posters, tags and Coordinating Printable Collection are available in the shop here. We also offer our signature Hangtag Style Christmas Photo Card to match!”

Recreate this party:
Production and Styling: Anders Ruff
Magic Elf Printables: Anders Ruff
Professional Photography: Becca Bond Photography
Snow Cone Cupcakes: Got What It Cakes
Cake Pops: Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats
Custom Elf & Gift Sugar Cookies: Sugarbelle’s
Chocolate Reindeer Pops & Santas: Nicole’s Treats
Custom Embroidered Christmas Pajamas & Bottoms: Great Stitch
Custom Dress & Tie: B. Belle Couture
Custom Stockings: Aimee Broussard Events
Snowflake Headband: Drop of Honey Bowtique
Floral Boxes to display Gift Shaped Cookies: Blumebox
Label Material: Online Labels

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Elf on a Shelf Christmas Party

Elf on the Shelf North Pole Breakfast

Elf on the Shelf Christmas Party

Magic Elf Christmas Party