Handmade by Hoffy: Elf on the Shelf? Nope... it's on the door!

I love to cook as you all know, but I thought it was time to make something a little crafty for the Holiday Season. These little elf door decorations are so easy to make. They will look so cute on your door for many Holiday Seasons to come.

I saw this craft project on Pinterest, of course, and thought that is a really cute door hanger. All the items I used except the fabric came from the Dollar Tree. I saw this project in the spring and had to wait until the end of summer to purchase the items at the Dollar Tree. As we all know Dollar Tree's seasonal items usually come out about a month or so before each holiday. So I waited and sure enough the witch's hats were there in late August. I purchased 10 of them. As long as I was making one, I might as well make them for those special people in my life too. I'm definitely ADHD or obsessive compulsive...LOL! I haven't quite figured out which one yet, but I guess it really doesn't matter. I love making things. I should have been an assembly line worker...😅

This project, like I said, is one I found on Pinterest. The Dollar Tree has their own section on Pinterest along with a lot of crafty people that make unique things out of stuff from the Dollar Tree. I think I spent around $10.00 for the whole thing. That's a really inexpensive door hanging, don't you think? Of course there is your time, but as crafters know you don't get paid for your time. LOL! It's a labor of love. Save this post until next fall when once again you will be able to purchase those witch's hats and other holiday embellishments. It's really a fun project.

Christmas Elf Door Decoration

In order to make the Elf door decoration you will need the following items:

I purchased the following at the Dollar Tree...

Witch's hat
2 red spools of decorative mesh
4 spools of white decorative mesh
Small red bows
1 bag of shimmery little balls
1 or 2 Christmas flower picks
A bag of pipe cleaners
Some sparkly ribbon (not necessary, but it did add a lot more sparkle to the project)

You will also need:

1/8 yd. of red polka dot fabric or Christmas fabric
1 square of green felt
2-4 squares of red felt (if you are backing the with felt rather than fabric stabilizer

You can purchase the fabric and the felt at either Walmart or any fabric store. You will also need a glue gun. What would we do without that glue gun????

You will also need a template for the elf's shoes. Just click on the "Print" button and you will be redirected to a template that I made for them that you can print and use.

Time to make those legs and shoes

Hopefully you have printed out the template for the shoes at this point. Cut out 2 red shoes and 2 green cuffs. Note: for a more sturdy shoe, you can either cut 4 red shoes and 4 green cuffs or you can use iron on Pellon to give it stability. I used Pellon and a cut skewer to make the shoes stay apart. It's not necessary, but it kept the shoes from laying on top of each other.

Now for the legs...each leg is 16" long. Cut the fabric into 4"x16" long. You should get 2 legs out of the 1/8 yard of material. Fold the fabric right sides together and stitch the bottom and side with a 1/4" seam. Leave the tops open. Stuff each leg with stuffing using a knitting needle or a skewer to push the filling down. Don't push the filling all the way to the bottom. Leave about a 1/2" flat. This will be stitched or glued to the cuff. Leave about 2" at the top without filling. This will be folded over and glued under the brim.

Stitch or glue the cuffs to the shoe and then glue or stitch the legs to the cuffs. Decorate the shoes with little balls or whatever you think will look nice.

Other Cute Hats for Other Holidays

Here is a peak of two other door decorations I made for Halloween and Thanksgiving out of those witch's hats... I'll tackle those in another post.

I do hope you enjoyed this post. This is a fun project. It can be finished in one evening and at the end of the evening you will have a very cute decoration to be enjoyed for many years to come...enjoy!

One Final Thought...

As I have moved up the ladder to my senior years, I found that I really like to write. Another "who knew" for me. I love writing about things that interest me. And as you probably have figured out, I have a lot of interests. LOL! I've been retired for almost 8 years and truly have never been bored. There's always things that need to be done, things to write about, trying new recipes or crafts. I am truly blessed and truly enjoying retirement...of course the best thing about retirement is no more "ALARM CLOCKS" for me! I don't even have a clock in my bedroom...that's a win win!!!

Here are a few more posts from Handmade by Hoffy. I do love to create. I think I've dabbled in so many medias. I can't say for sure which one I love the most...although crocheting is pretty high up on my list.