DIY Advent Calendar

Welcome to Creating Christmas Week at The Girl Creative! A few weeks ago I dared you to stop pinning and start creating! And I’m excited to tell you that 15 fabulous bloggers have taken me up on that dare and will be co-hosting this event with me! All week long we will be posting Christmas projects (at our own blogs) that we ourselves have created. On the last day, we will be co-hosting a blog hop for CHRISTMAS PROJECTS ONLY! It’ not too late to start creating! We’d love to see your creations at the end of the week during our linky party.

::::::When you get a minute, say hello to our fabulous co-hosts::::::

Que Linda Crafts, The Cottage Market, Love Lindsey, Domestic Mischief, Chicken Scratch, Love Sweet Love, Randee’s Organized Chaos, Musings of a Glamour Puss, Anastacia Knits, Southern Scraps, Modern Yet Old Fashioned, Broken Treasures, Alyssabeth’s, Domestic Deadline and Life on Walnut Street.

…………DIY Advent Calendar…………

I’ve wanted to create an Advent Calendar for the last few years but time just always gets away from me. Since I put that dare out to all of you to start creating, I figured this year would be the perfect time to “get ‘er done!”. My initial idea came from an advent calendar that I saw on the Pottery Barn website. Then it just sort of evolved into something different. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s perfectly imperfect which is really fitting for my home and family.

::::The Supply List::::

16×20 Canvas (you could probably go one size larger)
Paint
Vinyl Lettering and Embellishments
Glitter
Clothes pins in 2 sizes
Scrapbook Paper
Glue (I used Mod Podge, hot glue and a glue stick)
Distressing Ink

The first thing you want to do is to paint your canvas. I used Krylon spray paint. It covered well and dried quickly. Next I cut out some vinyl letters and the Christmas tree you see on the bottom right with my Cameo and stuck them to the canvas. I covered the whole canvas in a coat of Mod Podge to seal the vinyl (not necessary but since I wanted to add some shimmer it’s what I did) and then while it was still wet I gently sprinkled the canvas with glitter and allowed it to dry.

In the meantime I took 25 clothes pins (using all small ones probably would have been better but since I had just enough of both sizes for this project, I made do with both sizes) and embellished them with scrapbook paper using Mod Podge. I used 2 different patterns of paper so that when I added them to my canvas the pattern would alternate. I then roughed up the edges of the paper covered clothes pins with sand paper and distressed the edges with distress ink. {You can find the distress ink in the stamp section of your craft store near the stamp pads.}

{sorry for the lack of progress photos. I did take some but the lighting was horrible as I did most of my crafting at night and I didn’t want to embarrass myself with bad pictures.}

I attached my embellished clothes pins to the canvas using hot glue. I should have measured because once I added my numbers/tags, i noticed that some were overlapping, some had more space than other, etc.

Again, using my Cameo I cut tags out of scrapbook paper and card stock in 2 different sizes so that I could layer them and just glued them together with one of those little glue sticks.

In between all of this I had come up with a list of activities to put on the back of each calendar day until Christmas. I printed them out on blank address labels and stuck them on the back. I may have to make some new labels next year because some of our activities were for special events that we already had planned for this month but it definitely works for us this year.

Overall I’m really happy with how it came out. This project took me awhile which is HUGE for me. lol I normally like to do projects that I can bang out while Kole is napping but I’m glad I stuck with it and finished it. My girls are enjoying discovering the daily activities.

::::::::If you think this is Pin Worthy, I’d love for you to PIN it!::::::::

Coming up this week: Guest Posts from Tatertots and Jello, I {heart} Nap Time, Brown Paper Packages and Lolly Jane. Also, I have a few more of my own projects that I’m excited to share!

:::::::I will be linking this project to Tatertots and Jello, I {heart} Nap Time, Blue Cricket Design, Skip to my Lou and Somewhat Simple:::::::

21 Comments

So cool

I love this idea! I made one too but I think I like yours better – maybe next year 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

Very cute, Diana! Love the colors!

very cute and I am so pinning it!

I love this advent calendar, Diana! It looks easy and I love the little to-do list for everyday on the back. What a great idea! Oh I’m definitely pinning this one!!!

This is great! I pinned it and cant wait to see all of the projects.

Totally pin worthy!

I love that you did yours on a canvas, great idea!! That’s too funny…I posted an advent Calendar today too to kick off the week, great minds think alike! 😉

I love your tutorial that i added it on my blog thank you

http://ourlittlenestonthelake.blogspot.com/

Would luv for you to add it in our linking party, so our readers will discover this awesome project at http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/11/5-fabulous-christmas-card-ideas.html
Have a great week,
Maggie
http://passionatelyartistic.com

Thanks so much for this!! I linked to our blog so that we can follow along!!
Nadine

I love how this turned out! I’d love it if you would add this to my party at http://raegunwear.blogspot.com/2011/11/link-party-what-we-wore-and-made_29.html

Love it! Especially those cute clothespins 🙂

Cute idea…could be customized in so many ways. Like the canvas as a background~

Wait! I thought this started tomorrow 🙁 I was planning on “co-hosting”….but was there something apecial I needed to fill out or do?? I commented on your original post about it. I hope I’m not too late!

This is sooo cute! I’m linking up everyday but I was too nervous to commit to being a hostess! I am really loving this whole thing though! Thank you so much for organizing it!!

Very Sweet! 🙂

Wonderful!! I found you on Tip Junkie’s Christmas In July! I’m actually going to TRY to do some stuff now and be ahead of the game while there’s a little lull between 4th of July and fall fun!! I love this calendar!! Thanks for the inspiration!

Regarding replacement ideas for your activities … not sure what activities you’ve already included on your tags, but you could include some key Bible verses from the Christmas story to ponder on for that particular day! May lead to asking questions such as “Why do you think that it was shepherds that God sent angels to with His special message?” or “What do you think might be the reason God allowed Jesus to be born in a stable?”

I blog over at http://www.2crafty4myskirt.blogspot.com/ and I just wanted to let you know that today I posted a round up of Christmas Countdowns. I featured this project in the round up. Please let me know if you are not ok with that and I will remove it from the post! Thanks!