CPTGAME,
you did not state wither this is poly or nurbs? if this is nurbs then you should disregard the whole UV mapping suggestion unless you convert to POLY (I would!) otherwise you will need to create your elf text in a paint prog like PS or illustrator then create a layered shader, import your text on an alpha and finally map to your mesh (if this is mumbo jumbo then start downloading texture tuts!) you can then use the texture placement tool(nurbs only) to get the texture in place.

my $0.02