Elf on the Shelf ideas

Alrighty, at first I must admit I did no want one of these "creepy little elves" in my house. I didn't get the point in them.. I assumed it was to keep an eye on your kids so that they knew Santa was watching (which is actually true). So I bought a different elf at Safeway and called it our Elf on the Shelf and named her Tinsel. It wasn't until I came across them on pintrest that I decided I had to have one. The things people do with these dolls are hilarious. We bought ours over a month ago with survey points I earn so it cost me nothing but time.

 The reason he is in different spots is because every night he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa what he saw that day. You don't have to even do silly things with the elf. All he has to do is move spots. Someone just got creative and decided to.Now there are a lot of people out there who do not do them. I've even seen a blogger bad mouth the parents who do. I feel like that is taking it a little far. If you don't want to do them, that's fine but don't be rude to people who want to. Not doing an elf doesn't make you a bad parent- teaching your child to put others down for wanting to does.

Today, November 24th, We got our elf on the shelf. We decided he shows up right after we decorate the tree. His name is Peppermint, or just Pepper for short. Check back for all our ideas!

Day two:
Taking a nap
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023600219/
mikeandbrittanyericksen.blogspot.ca

 

 Day Three:
Turns the Milk green

We decdied he was going to start off doing harmless things and then as the days progress he was going to get more entertaining.

 Day four:
Riding in a sleigh with Mickey and Minnie

Day five:
Cotton ball bath

The lighting in my bathroom is terrible, but here is Peppermint taking a cotton ball bath. You can use marshmallows and your sink. But I only have one bathroom so I can't be too extreme

Day six:
Convinces other toys to play board game
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023514011
http://elfontheshelfideas.com/

Day seven:
Makes a flour angel on counter

 I ddin't go crazy on the flour because I was going to have to clean it up.  Plus I didn't want to waste the flour. An alternative to that is putting the flour in a 9x13 pan


Day Eight:
Roast Marshmallows on a candle
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023843638/

To roast the marshmallow, I stuck it underneath a lighter for a few minutes


Day Nine:
 http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023532499/
dirtydiaperlaundry.com
Hides in a Jewelry box.

Now I would have loved to have done what the original blogger did, but that is extremely hard to do in the dark while your kids are sleeping. This was the closets I could get. Also I just found out through this blogger that they have added wire into their elf's body. See instructions here


Day Ten:
Packs the kids their lunches with random items in the cupboards/house
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023934586/

Peppermint really thought about what the girls might need to eat when they got to school: Sugar, condensed milk, lime juice, an onion, and soup still in a can. To get him to sit I taped his butt down... after he fell off the candle a few times I was determined to keep him where is is.

Day Twelve:
Replaces all photos in the house with ones of himself
(http://www.hollyatnaptime.com/2011/12/funny-creative-elf-on-shelf-ideas.html)

Thankfully when I moved we did not unpack all of our photos or I would have been there all night!!


Day Thirteen:
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023969161/edit/
http://familylifeisgreat.blogspot.com/2011/12/misadventures-of-jingle-bob-elf.html
Elf is playing Santa

I took a cotton ball and small double sided sticky tape to his face to get it to stay. A few days beforehand I hid the dogs under their bed (where they usually are, but closer to where I needed them). We got the sleigh from a Lowes Build and Grow workshop that was promoting Dreamworks "Rise of the Guardian"

Day Eleven:
 Builds Snowman out of marshmallows
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023774517/

 

 I Used Wilton food color pens and spaghetti sticks to make the snow men.  This was by far the most annoying one ever. 1) Because the Marshmallow snowmen kept falling over and 2) I still have yet to doctor the elf to make him bend and stay.

Day Thirteen:
Elf Graffiti- He uses window markers to color all over the bathroom mirrors
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023639088/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42222785@N07/?saved=1

 Alright this one kinda happened quicker than I was planning. With my allergies kicking in yesterday I was so tired I went to "rest my eyes" while I waited for Hannah the night owl to fall asleep. Next thing I know I'm waking up an hour and a half into my nap disoriented wondering what the elf was supposed to do (a down side of owning an elf is this moment).

Our graffiti didn't show up as nicely as the other moms who used dry erase markers...


Day Fourteen (open because I'm not home).
 I decided there was no way I was going to try to bring him to grandma's house and get caught.

Day Fifteen:
 Stays up all night watching T.V with Barbie

 

This was a little hard because I had to se it  up right before I left for the weekend. I managed to do it without the girls seeing.

Day Sixteen:
Zip-line Elf
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023936482/

 

This was super fun to do.  First I had to wait until the girls fell asleep last night (of course since they fell asleep in the car they were crazy napped kids who had more energy!). I would have tied it to my tree, but it is one of those fake ones (don't judge me) and it is on a motor. So when the lights turn on the tree spins slowly in a circle. Super awesome. Only problem would have been if I had put the zip line it would have pulled the string into it. So I had to put it on the binds instead.

Day Seventeen
Piggy Bank thief
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023936464/

 

 I made the bag out of tissues, stuffed it with cotton balls and tied it with some yarn. I taped the quarter into his hand. We used a scarf to make it look like that is how he climbed up to the piggy bank. Then at the last minute I decided Aurora needed to be the getaway driver.

Day Eighteen:
He replaced all the stockings with the girls underwear.

Day Nineteen:

livinglocurto.com
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023980406/
Photo Booth with Aurora and Barbies

The backdrop is a flat present I had wrapped.
To make the props you have to go to the original bloggers page and print them out. Getting all the dolls to pose was a very frustrating task. But we got it! Keeping the papers on the sticks (that I made too short) was also a little frustrating.  I had to use a LOT of tape... The girls don't seem to notice.

After taking these photos I had to switch the dolls positions because he was eying Rapunzel and the girls would make a comment about him liking Aurora.

Day Twenty:
 Builds Fort out of oatmeal box and hides in the Christmas tree
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023934565/

 

Day Twenty-One:
Wraps girls door in crepe paper
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023639062/

It use to look nice and even, but while I was doing it last night the top left corner kept falling. Then I had to add mroe tape, which in return made my oldest stir and I thought I saw her eyes open. all in all, still cute and fun.

Twenty-two:
Uses Husbands razor
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023901397/

 Super glad I got this one ready before I fell asleep. The girls are both sick (stomach bug &  cold)

Twenty-three
Elf has a sick day
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915024069287/
http://www.overthebigmoon.com/25-elf-on-the-shelf-ideas-that-take-under-5-mins/

Colds and stomach bugs have flown through our tiny little apartment. So I've been cleaning quite a bit. I thought it only appropriate to give Pepper-MinT a cold too.

Twenty-four
T.P's the Christmas tree
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023844200/

Twenty-five
Read The Grinch to some toys
http://magnoliafotos.blogspot.com/2011/12/pinto-jacks-elf-on-shelf.html
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915024069269

Twenty-six
Stuck in a bag of M&M's

Twenty-six:
Potty Humor
No Original Source
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023996995/

I set the bar a liiiitttle too high the other day.. They weren't impressed with being stuck inside the M&M bag.. so I had to pull out the bigger guns.

Twenty-seven
 Hiding in the candy bowl

Twenty-eight:
Lego Men capture elf
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023438380/
http://www.hollyatnaptime.com/2011/12/funny-creative-elf-on-shelf-ideas.html

I accidentally deleted the main photo of this one off my camera. This is the best I've got- right after this my daughter mentioned her cousin touched the elf and we went into "Emergency Elf Kit" gear.

Twenty-nine:
I can't believe I missed the picture of this. He was sitting on our advent calender and there was a note saying : Santa's coming tonight!


OTHER IDEAS: These are ones I was going to use but eventually were nixed for whatever reason:

1) Elf colors in coloring book or makes a self portrait
2)Does "YMCA" with Barbies
3) Sets up dominos
4) Makes a Good Morning cup of Hot Cocoa
5) Makes mini pancakes for the kids
6)Spells out a message in cereal or candy
7)Builds a real snow man out of shaved ice in your freezer
8) Super Elf
9)Weight lifting elf