3rd Annual Elf Party

Saturday night was our 3rd Annual Elf Party at our house. The movie Elf is one of our favorite Christmas movies and we watch it every December. The last two years we’ve had dinner + movie parties with friends to make it a fun tradition.

Last year I made treat bags with the help of print & cut using my Silhouette digital cutter. This year I wanted to go bigger and make Elf Party t-shirts for our guests. So I set to work a couple of weeks ago and purchased the blank t-shirts. I found a graphic of Buddy the Elf online, and I opened it up inside my Silhouette Studio software and traced the outline. Then I used the font Bebas and typed out one of my favorite Elf quotes.


I moved the text out of the cut zone and cut out the Elf outline, using Silhouette’s Flocked Heat Transfer Sheet in red. I loaded it into the machine with the opaque side up, or shiny colorful side down.


After it’s been cut and I removed it from the machine, I peeled away the extraneous parts of the flocking.


Here it is, colorful side up with the clear shiny sheet on top, ready for ironing onto the t-shirt!


Before you start putting designs on the blank t-shirts, you should wash, dry, and iron them. That way the shirts won’t shrink and ruin the designs. Put the iron setting on about 300 degrees, or the cotton setting. Then place the design where you want it on the shirt, and put a piece of pressing cloth on top. Press down for 45-60 seconds. Then peel away the shiny sheet to reveal the flocking. If the design hasn’t totally adhered to the shirt, iron some more until the shiny sheet peels away. Here you can see the design on the t-shirt. The flocking material gives it a velvet texture.


Next, I cut out the text on cardstock and removed the letters to create a template. You can use adhesive vinyl, freezer paper, or contact paper also.


I position the template where I want the text on my t-shirt, and I use a foam brush to apply fabric ink to it.


Make sure you put a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, underneath where you’re applying the fabric ink, so that it doesn’t seep through to the back of the shirt! After the ink is dry, press on it with an iron again to set the ink.

And here they are!


I mixed cyan and yellow inks to get the green ink.


I also bought some blank kraft Moleskine notebooks and stamped snowflakes on them using the Peace Be Still stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear” quote from Elf using red ink on top of the snowflakes. The stamp is from the Stylish Sentiments: Holiday stamp set from Papertrey Ink.


I put candies into glassine bags and sealed them with washi tapes.


The notebooks, treats, and holiday cards went into a cute felt bag for our guests to take home.




We cooked Spring Vegetable Pasta, a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.


And Thai Chicken Risotto from Cooking Light.


Some mingling right before dinner.


Elf dinner with our guests.


I was so thrilled when I showed the t-shirts to everyone that they decided to all change into the shirts for the evening!

Todd made a spice cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.


And Victoria brought a homemade pumpkin pie.


Mmm. Any party with TWO desserts is a success in my book!


We had fun watching Elf again with our friends! The 3rd Annual Elf Party was a success and we can’t wait to think of new party favors and party plans for next year! :)