Home About House Tour Projects Press Contact

18 Dec 2013

DIY: Aarikka Inspired Jingle Bell Elves

Today is a Jingle Mingle day folks!  I and six other bloggers (Julia from Cuckoo 4 Design, Cassie from Primitive & Proper, Katja from Shift Ctrl Art, Gabbi from Retro Ranch Renovation, Bethany from Dwellings by Devore& Kristin from Bliss at Home) were given the challenge of making a craft/ornament from jingle bells.  I came up with some Aarikka inspired elves.  You may remember them from the Christmas wish list I posted about earlier.  When I was looking at the Aarikka Christmas tontut/elves at the Finn store with my mom, she suggested that I make my own.  So I did. :)  To make my little elves work for this Jingle Mingle, I added little black and white jingle bells to their hats. The idea of adding a jingle bell came from a similar craft my friend Jenny made for our mom and tots group (thanks Jenny!).

The elves are sporting our Christmas grey, black and white colours and I love this modern take on Christmas tontut/elves.

I made a little elf family and put them up on our mantel.  They fit in perfectly and I think they are fun for the kids.  I wanted to make a dog elf too so it would be just like our family ;).  I wasn't sure how to make one and am on the look out for a small wooden dog to complete our elf family.

This photo's here just because I have to have at least one of my kiddos in a post and because I like to overkill photos with bokeh whenever I can. :)


These elves are pretty easy to make and I'm not sure a tutorial is needed, but I took some quick pictures of what you'll need and the basic steps anyway.  Little Pilot helped paint the beads, but I had to do most of the rest since I used hot glue.

Jingle Bell Elf

Materials:  craft paint (for painting the beads if you wish), jingle bell, one felt triangle (the base of the triangle should be large enough to wrap around the bead that will be the head), two wood beads (one larger for the body and one smaller for the head), one strip of felt for the scarf & hot glue

How To:
1.  Make the hat by wrapping the felt triangle into a cone and gluing it together along the seam.  Trim the top peak off and any overlap at the base.
2.  Glue a jingle bell to your trimmed peak.
3. Paint your body bead and hot glue the head onto the body.
4.  Tie the scarf felt piece around the "neck" and add your hat (this can be glued on if it doesn't stay in place).
You're done!

Little Pilot played with these nicely for awhile and then it turned into a "let's shoot/fly them off the table" game. :)  Oh, and when I ask him who the elves are he says they are him, his brother, Daddy, Mummu and Pappa.  I seem to be left out of the elf family.  Maybe I need to make more.  He also seems to be seeing a fifth elf there. :)

So that's my little jingle bell craft.  Now head on over to these amazing blogs to see some awesome jingle bell crafts.  Go on and Jingle Mingle!


sharing this here: linkpartypalooza

31 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! Seriously, your photos! I have been wanting to try something like that but it's been a big fail. And you rprojects is adorable. So so cute. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm still working on the "bokeh" thing. I think I may have gotten a little too much of it in these pictures, but it's so fun to take these photos. It gets kind of addictive!

      Delete
  2. I AM IN LOVE!!!!!!! so making these next christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You totally should! :) They took no time at all to make too.

      Delete
  3. Love love love! So cute and great bokeh! xo Kristin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kristin. Gotta love a little or maybe a little too much bokeh? ;)

      Delete
  4. Oh my goodness Anu. These are so adorable, I can't even stand it. I love that you painted the bottoms white. So perfect. I need to make some of these right now :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I love my little elves too. I want to see your elves if you make them, please! :)

      Delete
  5. OMG these are soooo sweet!!! I love these so much! So clever!

    ReplyDelete
  6. How super cute are they?!?! I absolutely love them!! Great job! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gabbi! I'm really happy with how they turned out.

      Delete
  7. You are on a roll girl! So many crafts you've done already. And these are soooo doable and fun and so finnish! :D Another one for my to do list. HAH! (Which is growing by the minute thanks to you dear. ;-P)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, and I was wondering if you got my email I sent you few weeks back.

      Delete
    2. I just emailed you friend!

      Delete
  8. Oh my gosh, these are SOOO cute! I love love love them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Aarikka had some great inspiration.

      Delete
  9. Oh I LOVE these. I love that you went with something totally unexpected. They are just adorable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Shavonda! I was going to make the elves into ornaments initially, but loved them more as a little family. :)

      Delete
  10. little elves! so cute! and that picture with Little Pilot is great....I keep meaning to try my hand at some tree pics like that, but I haven't yet. Hope the elves survived the dangerous fly them off the table game :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha! I had to stop the game pretty quickly to make sure the elves survived long enough for me to take my pictures at least. They're safe up on the mantel now. :)

      Delete
  11. These are adorable. And I love the hats on them. Adorable and so festive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kim. I was happy that I had this jingle bell challenge or my elves might of missed out on having a cute little jingle bell on their hats!

      Delete
  12. These are so super adorable! I was actually thinking of buying something similar on etsy, but now you've given me a project!
    http://www.westcoastmama.net/christmas-tree-2013/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Margarita! I'd love to see pictures if you make some!

      Delete
  13. So adorable! These guys are too cute!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the elves! Simple and cute! And your photos are stunningggg!!!

    ReplyDelete

Connect with Nalle's House

Follow Me On Facebook Follow Me On Twitter Follow Me On Instagram Follow Me On Pinterest Follow Me On Bloglovin RSS Feed

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...