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Gift of Online Piano Lessons in Partnership with Hoffman Academy | A Well Crafted Party
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The Gift of Music + Free Printable

3 Comments A Well Crafted Sponsor

Anyone else out there getting overwhelmed with the number of wants and THINGS? I am a gift giver by nature and love to see someone’s face light up with a gift I’ve given, but as my kids’ age, I’ve really begun to appreciate the “experience gift” over the next new toy. What’s great about this particular experience gift is that it is the ultimate DIY– learning a new skill!

This is the seventh day of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate in your holiday season. Most will be super simple! This post is in partnership with the Hoffman Academy. I received complimentary services. All images and opinions are my own.

Gift of Online Piano Lessons in Partnership with Hoffman Academy | A Well Crafted Party

I am a part of several moms groups on Facebook and as this holiday season arrives there are countless posts looking for ideas for experience gifts that they can suggest to grandparents or loved ones for their children to help stave off some of the over-abundance of the season. I love this idea but have never really had great options in the past. I’d love to gift my child lessons or sports items, but I also know that it can be SUCH A huge time commitment that I hesitate to do something similar for someone I know. When I discovered Hoffman Academy, an online piano lesson site, I was super excited about the opportunity to do lessons on our own time.

A bit about Hoffman Academy

Hoffman Academy is an online piano lesson “experience,” credited with turning children, from beginner to advanced levels, into extraordinary musicians.  Children develop their skill easily and quickly via the “Hoffman Method,” which focuses on learning by ear before learning by eye. Online games help with mastery of concepts and practice tracks make students feel like pros. This new way to learn the piano is engaging, entertaining and effective – and a great way to give the special gift of music, for the holidays and year round.

All of the video lessons are available for free! However, the premium package offers printables, daily practice instructions, games, and much more. Budding musicians can now receive a full year of the Hoffman Academy Premium package for $179!  For Ages 5+.

** Holiday Special Update: For a limited time (ending Monday, December 14th at 11:50 PM PST) purchase a year of Hoffman Academy Premium and receive THREE additional memberships! Learn more on the Hoffman Academy website. **

Piano Lessons from Hoffman Academy | A Well Crafted Party Games to help teach piano from Hoffman Academy | A Well Crafted Party

The really cool part (for me at least) is that you can create a parent/mentor account and add your children (or yourself!) as students. My account has both myself and my son as students and the system will keep track of both of our progress individually. Yep, you read that right… I’m learning the piano too! I’d love to be able to break out some sweet piano skills in the middle of a party! Again, the accounts are totally free and you have access to the video lessons right off the bat. Then if you find that you’d like the premium features it is only $18 a month with $9/month per additional student.

Create an Account on Hoffman Academy | A Well Crafted Party

Twelve Days of Christmas Songs

In the upcoming weeks, the Hoffman Academy will be releasing twelve different lessons featuring a different holiday tune so that you can learn a new holiday song each day! Check out some of the videos from last year’s 12 Days of Christmas Songs on the Hoffman Academy blog.

Free Printable Piano Card | A Well Crafted Party

DIY Piano Experience Gift Card

You still want to make giving an experience gift as fun as giving a toy. When it is a promo code or gift card it makes it a tad hard to make it super fun.. but, you can use the attached card as a tag added to a gifted keyboard or piano or an adorbable stuffed animal as pictured above. Or, you can slip the free printable piano card into an envelope with a message about the gift.

This gift card would work perfect for a gift subscription to the Hoffman Academy, to give with tickets to a symphony concert, or as an invitation to a holiday karaoke party!

Directions for free printable piano holiday card:

  • Download the free printable piano card file.
  • Print double-sided on cardstock
  • On the side with the piano, cut out along the charcoal colored outer line. Fold the card down the center. Once folded you may find that you need to trim the card a bit.
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White Elephant Gift Wrap Free Printables | A Well Crafted Party
Christmas

White Elephant Gift Wrap Ideas + Free Printables

3 Comments Christmas

I love a good white elephant gift exchange. It gives people the opportunity to mingle and laugh and sends everyone home with a gift! This year I’m attending four different parties with white elephant gift exchanges! One of my goals each time is to create a package that really makes people want to open my gift… and then fill the package with something that is sure to be stolen a few times. I created these white elephant gift wrap printables with the adorable illustrations from Lorats from Freepik.

This is the sixth day of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate in your holiday season. Most will be super simple!

White Elephant Gift Wrap Free Printables | A Well Crafted Party

So, how do you play White Elephant? I am pretty sure everytime someone has described the game it has sounded complicated, but in practice, it is really simple and a lot of fun. I’ll share the rules I have always played by, but always run with the host’s rules!

How to Play White Elephant

  • All players must have provided a wrapped give of a determined value and/or theme. Most of the times I’ve played the gifts were valued from $15-$25. However, I have totally played with a $10 limit before and had just as much fun. I added in theme here because I’ve been to some white elephant games that set not only a price range but also a theme for a party. One of my favorite traditions is attending a mug swap with friends and we all get different mugs and then play a game of white elephant for the mugs.
  • Write down a number for each of the gifts and put all the numbers in a bowl/hat/box/what-have-you.
  • Have every person draw a number.
  • The person that receives the number one is a very special player. They get the opportunity to go first, but then at the end of the game, they have the opportunity to steal a gift that hasn’t been locked (more on that later).
  • Person one picks a gift and opens it. They make sure to show the gift to everyone present.
  • Person two then has the option to either open a new gift or steal the gift from person number one. If they choose to steal the gift then person number one gets to open a new gift.
  • Each gift can be stolen only twice. Once it has been stolen a second time (so it has reached its third owner) it is locked and cannot be stolen again.
  • You can steal a gift back that was stolen from you only if it was not JUST stolen from you and is not locked.
  • At the end of the game the person with the number one gets the opportunity to either steal or end the game. If they steal then the person they steal from has the opportunity to steal, etc. In that case the game goes on until someone ends it by no longer stealing. The gifts that have been locked may not be stolen.

white elephant gift wrap ideas

Tips for Great White Elephant Games

  1. Pick a gift that you truly love or think that others will love. Sometimes White Elephant games are called “Dirty Santa” and are gag gifts. Even in that case, go for the funniest gift available rather than the dud gift. No one wants to go home with a dud!
  2. Wrap it up nice! Make the gift look so fun that someone wants to open it up right away. It is fun to see your gift opened up and stolen. Plus, people really enjoy opening gifts. On that note, don’t make the gift too complicated to open. Everyone will be watching and time may be limited.

white elephant gift wrap ideas and free printables Free Printables White Elephant Gift Wrap Ideas

Free White Elephant Wrapping Printables

Below are some free (for personal use) printable gift wrap items to help make your white elephant gift extra adorable. I mean… if I saw a gift with cute little elephants on it at a White Elephant Party, well, I’d for sure pick it!

  • Download the White Elephant Gift Tags 2UP: These are the larger tags. Print on cardstock, cut out along red outer lines, and hole punch the top circle. Attach to your gift with ribbon.
  • Download the White Elephant Gift Tags 4UP: These are slightly smaller tags. Print on cardstock, cut out along red outer lines, and hole punch the top circle. Attach to your gift with ribbon.
  • Download the 8.5X11 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print this out on copy paper using a home printer or, for better quality, print at your local print shop. This size is perfect for small trinkets.
  • Download the 11X17 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print this on copy weight paper at your local print shop.
  • Download the 18X24 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print as a color engineering print from your local Staples or favorite print shop.

Have you ever been to a White Elephant party? If so, what was your favorite gift?

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Neighbor Christmas Gifts | A Well Crafted Party
Christmas

Neighbor Christmas Gifts + Free Printables

1 Comment Christmas

I’m always looking for great solutions for affordable, useful, and fun gifts to give my neighbors and coworkers. This DIY is mostly gathering pre-made items and putting them together. You can absolutely purchase all of the items to create similar neighbor gifts or you can use these free neighbor gift printables to create part of the gift.

This is the fifth day of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate in your holiday season. Most will be super simple!

I personally am a very busy person. Seriously, aren’t we all? So while I love giving gifts to people and want them to be touching and useful… well, I also really like them to be EASY. These gifts have few supplies and can be made quickly and in multiples pretty easily making it the perfect neighbor gift or coworker gift.

Neighbor Christmas Gifts | A Well Crafted Party

Supplies:

Most of these supplies can be found locally in any of your favorite full-service department stores. Below are some suggested links that are affiliate links.  I receive a small portion of sales of these items with no extra cost to the buyer. These purchases help support the content that I create on this blog. Thank you for supporting this blog!

  • Wrapping paper – I purchased this adorable “Is it Christmas Yeti?” paper at Target. However, you can get some great holiday wrapping papers in bulk!
  • Tape
  • Gift Tags (use the free printable or purchase some!)
  • Ribbon
  • Cellophane bags to put the tags and tape in
  • Gift tag to explain gift — Use my free printable or add a Christmas card or tag of your own.
  • Hole punch & Scissors (if using free printables)

Neighbor Christmas Gifts + Free Printables | A Well Crafted Party

How To:

You can get as creative as you want with these gifts. Add in things like ribbon or baubles to really make it an over-the-top gift. However, it is also a great present to give the gift as pictured: wrapping paper, gift tags, and tape. Below are some suggested steps for creating this gift:

  1. Print out the free printables! But out around the edges lined in black. Use a hole punch on all the tags where the holes are located.
  2. Put all of the smaller gift tags into a cellophane bag along with the tape. Fold the bag.
  3. Punch a hole through the cellophane bag.
  4. Thread the cellophane bag and large gift tag on a roll of wrapping paper using ribbon.
  5. Don’t forget to sign the large gift tag!

Happy Gifting!


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