2012 Magic elves update 4

In amongst decorating my Christmas cake and making Snowmen gifts for Sophie's friends, I have also been keeping on top of the mischief and fun that our elves have been getting up to:

- they made chocolate rice krispie Christmas tree treats

 - they got into a pickle with wrapping paper and sellotape

- they had fun with our snowmen toys and got us tickets to see The Snowman in London just after Christmas - amazing! Not sure Mr Snowball was too happy though when he realised it was a ballet!

- they sent an e-mail to Father Christmas with a report on Sophie and Justin - there was still slight room for improvement in both!

- they created a game with marshmallow flumps and mini marshmallows

 - they hid in my crochet bag - it took the kiddies a little while to find them

- we found a sparkly jar of "Magic Restoring Powder" with instructions for use:

Sprinkle invisible magic powder onto elf

Give elf a big hug and kiss 

Put into the washing machine and close the door

Leave the room so the magic powder doesn’t accidentally work on you

Wait 5 minutes - you must not peek during that time

Hey Presto - your elf should be back to normal!

... and then found the elves in the washing machine. They had shrunk and the colours/clothes had all got mixed up. Sophie thought this was the funniest thing yet ...

... thankfully the Magic Powder worked and the elves were restored to their former selves. We had to follow the instructions to the letter and I was not allowed to peak before the five minute timer went off.

 - following their shrinking the elves decided they needed to cheer themselves up and went mad with chocolate and sweets ... I have never seen so many empty wrappers in once place!

 - and last night they had fun making origami water balloons and "chatterboxes" - I will have to learn how to make the water balloons as I don't know that skill yet!

I can't believe there are only three more nights before Sally and Colin head back to the North Pole with Father Christmas when he comes to visit us on Christmas Eve - it has gone so quickly.

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Marshmallow snowman gifts

Last year I made little gifts for Sophie's close friends at school (see my post Reindeer noses) and I wanted to do the same thing again this year. I spent a happy time searching the internet and Pinterest and came up with marshmallow snowmen.

I liked the design here but didn't want the message. It took a bit of fiddling to get the head shape right, but eventually I ended up with a good size that fitted horizontally onto an A4 sheet of paper (so I could get two toppers from the same sheet and not waste lots of paper). I cut a stencil and drew around it, folded it in half then used black paint for the hat and for the eyes (I used a small carrot to stamp the eyes). I cut out brims that were slightly wider than the hat in black corrugated card and a carrot nose in orange card.

I put about 25g of mini marshmallows in a Wilton cake pop bag and added some food glitter/sparkle powder. I then folded over the top of the bag and stapled the snowman topper onto the bag where the brim would be attached. I attached the orange nose using foam pads to lift it slightly and glued the black cardboard brims to the front and back, making sure they lined up. Finishing touches included a ribbon that wrapped around the hat above the brim, Merry Christmas and some snowflakes stamped in silver onto the black hat.

Sophie then wrote her friends' names on the back of the topper, popped each snowman into an envelope and placed them into the school Christmas postbox. Her friends had a lovely surprise when they opened their book bags when they got home from school that night.

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Christmas cake 2012 - baubletastic ...

I have just finished decorating my Christmas cake for this year - hooray.

As in previous years, I bought a plain fruit cake, then covered it in marzipan and white fondant icing ready for the decorating.

The theme this year is baubles. I searched the internet and pinned various ideas here. I then designed it on paper and made the various bauble shapes, leaving them to firm up before "blinging" them up with cake glitter (although this is no longer allowed to be called edible as your body doesn't digest it, it is non-toxic and only means you end up with sparkly p**!!). The glitter looks great but gets everywhere and continues to fall off every time you knock the decoration/cake, but I guess it doesn't matter as is there such a thing as too much glitter? In fact, I finished the cake off with an extra sprinkling of my favourite glitter (EdAble Art Disco Blue Violet).

I decided to be very traditional with the colour scheme and kept to red, green and gold. Initially, I was only going to do the design on the top but decided I wanted to decorate the sides too and the whole thing was finished off with a red ribbon round the board.

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

2012 Magic elves update 3

Since the last post the elves have been both good and very naughty. Here's what they've been up to ...

- hiding in the cereal packets at breakfast time

 - hiding in our new car. The children couldn't find them anywhere in the house and were convinced they had gone back to the North Pole!

 - playing noughts and crosses (or tic-tac-toe if you are American!)

 - they brought new elf clothes for Sophie and Justin's favourite teddies and sat on the sofa reading a book about Santa's elves

 - and last night they decided to go fishing in the bathroom sink. The fish turned out to be carrot flavoured (Sophie was brave enough to try one)!

Still just over a week and half to go and more mischief on it's way. Bring it on!

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

2012 Magic elves update 2 ...

The elves have had lots of fun in our house this first week and are keeping the children amused with their antics:

- they decided to have a bath in front of the fire. We are not sure who took the picture in the middle of the night but the children think it must have been their new Rudolph teddy as he was nearby and had a huge smile on his face the next morning, looking very guilty ...

 - they decided to make snow angels out of dessicated coconut.

- they relaxed by watching all our Christmas DVDs with drinks and popcorn.

- they disappeared after making a huge pile (and mess) of tinsel. We couldn't find them anywhere ...

... until we spotted a hand peeping out from one of the tinsel mountains!

- and last night they had fun with our toilet rolls!

I wonder what mishief next week holds for our lovely magic elves?

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look

It's that time of year again - the magic elves are back!

Saturday was the 1st December and our very friendly postman delivered a special parcel to Sophie and Justin, all the way from the North Pole ...

... the Elves arrived with a letter from Santa:

Dear Sophie and Justin

Colin and Sally had such a lovely time last with you last year that they asked to be sent to you again this year.

Please take care of them and don't forget that they will be reporting back to me as to whether you have been good or naughty. Please make sure they don't get up to too much mischief and have fun with them.

Love Santa

And true to nature, our cheeky elves have already been up to mischief - albeit very helpful mischief on the first night: they put up our Christmas tree, complete with lights and then started putting some of the decorations ...

What will they do next I wonder?

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look