Cutesy the Elf Days 19 - 24

We are still enjoying finding Cutesy every morning. The month of December has flown by. I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Day. Merry Christmas!

Day 19: Cutesy was hanging out by the back door with a riddle. Boogs had to crack the code by solving Algebra problems. Boogs was not thrilled with Cutesy's math assignment for him. Ha!

Day 20: Cutesy was hard to find. He was hanging out on the light fixture above the dining room table.

Day 21: Cutesy was sitting on the bookshelf in the playroom with a dancing elf to celebrate the last day of school in 2018. Unfortunately, Boogs was feeling a bit under the weather. Boogs did not go to school this day. Instead, he went to the doctor's office. Extra rest should fix him right up.

Day 22: Cutesy was snuggled on the couch with a few friends to read The Polar Express. We have read this book every year since Boogs' first Christmas. Cutesy also had a Grow A Train package with him.

Day 23: The Purple Minion has had it out for Cutesy for many years. He has dangled Cutesy from a ceiling fan, trapped him in a Lego cage, helped a troop of Army men capture Cutesy, trapped him in a spiderweb, taken his Fun Dip candy, used a penguin popper to shoot ping pong balls at Cutesy, and even cheated at Monopoly. It was no surprise to find the Purple Minion sitting on Cutesy while saying, "What Elf? I don't know anything!" Boogs laughed when he saw him this morning and said, "I'm having an internal struggle of whether I want to upwrap him or not." Boogs gave in and unwrapped him about 20 minutes later. 

Day 24: It took Boogs a long time to find Cutesy this morning. Cutesy was hiding with a box of 25 Magic Card Tricks this morning. Boogs can practice these tricks before we see Grandmaman and Grandpapa for Christmas.

You can see why he was so hard to find, Cutesy blends right into the tree.

What are your elves doing this year? You can find all of Cutesy's adventures for the past seven years on my Cutesy the Elf Pinterest board or by clicking the "elf" tag after this post.

Cutesy the Elf Days 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Cutesy has been very busy lately.

Day 14: Cutesy was hiding in a great spot. It took quite a bit of time for Boogs to find him under the console table. Cutesy had a big yarn ball with a note, "I thought you needed to unwind. Pull here."

Boogs had a great time unwinding the yarn ball. He ran around the house while the ball unraveled in his wake. Boogs eventually started throwing the ball to make it unwind faster. He had to give that up when the ball narrowly missed knocking down the manger on top of the curio cabinet. Eventually, the last bit of yarn was removed to reveal a light up bouncy ball.

Day 15: Boogs awoke to find his doorway blocked by a giant balloon Christmas tree. The tree had to be relocated to the closet door in Boogs' bedroom so Boogs could get in and out of his room.

Every year, Cutesy the Elf tries to trap Boogs inside his room. This is what he did last year:

Boogs kept the lights on his door for weeks. But, he did have to rearrange them around the door frame to get out of his room.

Day 16: Boogs found Cutesy lounging in a deflated beach ball hammock with The Boys' Book of Adventure (I think Cutesy found the book at a used book store). Cutesy had bookmarked four pages. It looked like Cutesy had worked on the ideas from those four pages. He made himself a hammock, started a heroic saga for Boogs to finish, left a riddle to solve, and started designing a maze for Boogs to complete.

Day 17: Boogs did not finish the maze or the heroic saga, even though Cutesy asked him to. So, Cutesy decided to spend one more day with his hammock. Boogs found Cutesy trying to climb back in the hammock.

Day 18: Cutesy was hanging out in the curio cabinet with the Playmobile guy next to Nonnie and Papa's picture. That Playmobile guy has been hiding all over the house for three years. We went to a scuba diving museum in Florida several years ago. The museum had Playmobile figures hidden in each display room. It was like a treasure hunt to find them. We took that idea home with us. Since then, Boogs and I take turns hiding the Playmobile guy.

A week ago, Cutesy brought Boogs a gingerbread house. We finally got around to decorating it. I thing Boogs did a great job this year. It probably really helped that this house was pre-assembled. We always have so much trouble getting our walls to stay up.

What are your elves doing this year? You can find all of Cutesy's adventures for the past seven years on my Cutesy the Elf Pinterest board or by clicking the "elf" tag after this post.

Cutesy the Elf Days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

On day 9 of Cutesy's visit, Cutesy left a note on the back of the snowman that said he was a little homesick for snow. Cutesy used his magic to make a little bit of snow. He asked Boogs to help him make some more.

On day 10, Cutesy built himself a little car to race down the banister.

It looked like Cutesy had been reading Greek Myths on day 11. Cutesy had a tiny Origami Trojan Horse and a kit for Boogs to make his own Trojan Horse.  Cutesy propped up the wooden horse and left a few other pieces and some nails for Boogs to use. 

Here is a closer view of Cutesy's Origami Trojan Horse. Boogs said it looked more like a dog than a horse. Doesn't he realize that Cutesy basically has mittens for hands?

On Day 12, Cutesy was feeling cold and warmed up with a few pair of cozy socks.

On day 13, Cutesy was captured by a bunch of Lego mini-figures. We think Elfy was behind this bit of mischief.

What are your elves doing this year? You can find all of Cutesy's adventures for the past seven years on my Cutesy the Elf Pinterest board or by clicking the "elf" tag after this post.

Cutesy the Elf Days 5, 6, 7, & 8

Cutesy is keeping busy this week for days 5, 6, 7, and 8 of his visit.

Cutesy showed up with his favorite movie on day 5. It looked like he was being a cotton headed ninny muggins!

Every year, Cutesy brings back the little tree for Boogs' room. You can see the Elf perler bead ornament Cutesy made last year.

On day 6, he brought three little hedgehog ornaments for the tree. The smallest one looks just like Boogs' pet hedgehog, Nebraska Spike.

Cutesy usually brings some kind of challenge each year. On day 7, Cutesy brought an Inertia Tower Challenge. I think he read about it here. It is like the tablecloth trick, where you pull the tablecloth out from under dishes on a table, but with blocks and cups.

  Boogs was able to pull out all of the cards with only two blocks falling.

It was not possible to pull out a card without the entire paper cup tower crashing down.

Every year, Cutesy brings a gingerbread house for us to decorate. Today, he was hiding under the Christmas tree with a gingerbread house kit.

I called out for Boogs to come eat breakfast. He didn't answer me so I went looking for him. He was laying by the tree in the same pose as Cutesy. Looks like we will be decorating our gingerbread house this weekend. Yay! Boogs made sure I noticed the gingerbread house was pre-built. I have sooo much trouble getting the walls to stand up straight and stay together. Pre-built houses are the best!

What are your elves doing this year? You can find all of Cutesy's adventures for the past seven years on my Cutesy the Elf Pinterest board or by clicking the "elf" tag after this post.

Christmas Crafts

My husband and son went hunting during a few days of our Fall Break. I had the house to myself and spent quite a bit of that time crafting. My craft room looked like this most of the week.

I made Christmas cards, gift bags, a birthday wallet, a couple of birthday cards, and some treat pouches.

My Christmas cards have pop-up presents on the inside.

I took an 8 inch by 5 1/4 inch piece of white cardstock in half and made the following cuts.

Fold down the three present pieces and use a bone folder to sharpen the creases.

Push the folded pieces inward to make the pop out of the card.

Use the bone folder to sharpen the creases again.

Measure and attach three coordinating pieces of paper for the present's giftwrap.

Add small coordinating paper strips to the front of the card.

Attach the white cardstock to the inside of the card front with double stick tape.

I used three different sized circles for the tree embellishment. The tree stamp came from an old Stampin' Up set - Holiday Sampler.

I had a Hero Arts Merry Christmas die for a greeting on the front of the card.

I ended up making 16 cards. I still have other Christmas cards left over from previous years that I will also send out.

I followed the directions HERE to make a wallet gift card holder for my Dad's birthday.

I think it turned out pretty cute. It has space for four notes/gift cards.

I used THIS tutorial to make several little gift card holder bags. They are the perfect size for a gift card with a bit of tissue paper.

Then I played around with it a bit and made a larger version with sharper edges.

This card took forever to make. The 5 steps and background paper were challenging to cut. I found the template here.

I pulled out a few old Stampin Up sets  (That's Funny and Roughing It) to make a card for my Mom's 72nd birthday. My son wondered what I was doing when I set the edge of the card over the stove's flame.

These little treat holders have a few Hershey's Kisses inside. I took a 6 in. by 6 in. sheet of paper, added double sided tape on one edge and rolled it into a tube, then used tape to secure the ends of the tube in opposite directions. I used my crimper to add a little detail to the ends.

It has been a long time since I worked in my craft room. It was a lot of fun. I felt very fortunate to have all of my crafty stuff on the night of my son's band concert. Ten minutes before we had to leave for his concert venue, my son realized he did not have his bow tie or cummerbund. We quickly searched for it then I used our last few minutes to whip up a bow tie using a black foam craft sheet and black ribbon. I used a sheer black oversized scarf to make a quick cummerbund. It worked amazingly well. He was able to play in the concert.

He was nervous about not being able to play on the way to the concert but was all smile afterwards with his grandparents. It is hard to tell that his tie and cummerbund aren't the real thing.

What has been going on in your craft space?
This post is linked to:
Crafty Weekends