Alpine Advent Christmas Calendar

Looking for a simple, modern Christmas craft? Here’s a tutorial on how you can make this Alpine Advent Christmas calendar—plus, it comes with free templates for the trees.

The calendar is made up of three sizes of trees. I also recommend using at least three different colors of paper. They could be different greens, as I have used, but they don’t have to be. You could use red, black or even a patterned paper if you wish. 

Supply List:

• Number stamps (or you could use number stickers or paint them by hand.)

• Elmers rubber cement (I prefer this glue because it dries without wrinkling and you can rub off any excess.)

• Colored or patterned paper

• Gold craft paint

• ruler

• Optional: 1 package of .75 inch wooden blocks (to be used on the small trees)

• Optional: 1 package of 1 inch wooden blocks (to be used on the big trees)

• Hot glue gun and sticks

• Scissors or Exacto knife

• Bone folder or other scoring tool

First, print the templates onto your paper. How many trees you print on which color is totally up to you. CLICK OR TAP HERE FOR TREE TEMPLATES.

Next, cut out your trees along the SOLID lines. The dashed lines are for folding.

Then, using your ruler and scoring tool, score along all the dashed lines. (You can, but don’t have to score the tabs)

Now you can fold along all the dashed lines. Fold the paper IN so the dashed lines will be on the inside of the tree. Then you can stamp, paint or stick your number on the middle triangle as seen in the example above. Here, I’ve painted gold paint onto my number stamp and stamped it onto the paper.

Spread rubber cement on the two areas shown in the image. Then stick those two edges together—glue facing glue—to make a triangle shaped cone. Rub any excess glue until it comes off.

You can now fill your trees with candy! I made these to send to a family of four. I wasn’t sure how much candy would fit inside the trees so I took one of the smallest and one of the largest trees to a store with candy bins (this is by FAR the cheapest way to get a variety of candy.) This allowed me to see about how many treats I could fit into one tree and buy accordingly.

Once full, close up your trees by inserting the tabs into the slots.

Using a paint brush—I used a fan brush—swipe some gold paint on all three sides of the top tip of each tree. Now, you could stop here and call it done! But...

If you decided to buy “trunks” you’ll use hot glue to attach a wooden block to the base of each tree. Use the large blocks for the large trees and so forth.

And now you’re done! Your Christmas Tree / Alpine Advent calendar is ready to give away or use yourself! If you missed the link to download the tree templates, click or tap here.

Painted Acorns for Autumn Decorations

Do you have hundreds of acorns falling out of your tree every autumn? Do you wonder what you could do with all of that free crafting supply?! I’ve got a couple of natural autumn decoration ideas to help you use up your acorns. A full list of supplies you’ll need can be found at the end of this post.

Yes, this photo was taken on our driveway after we swept up all the nuts that had fallen. There were so many I decided I needed a project to use them. It’s a free and lovely resource!

Rinse the nuts, dry them and then bake. Spread the nuts in a tray lined with foil. Bake at 200°F for two hours. Turn them every 30 minutes.

It’s likely you’ll have to clean each nut by hand. Throw out any that are broken or have holes in them.

Maybe sanding is all you’ll need to do to get a natural color you like from your bowl. Maybe you found a new bowl at the store that needs no alteration. But the wood on my vintage nutcracker bowl was too dark for me, and still dark after sanding. So I bleached it, by applying it with a sponge. It took bleaching three times to get it as light as I wanted. And the natural looking result was pleasing!

This brand does not list color on the can! The copper looking one was the color I ended up liking most and using in my projects. (The sticker price with the barcode on the shelf should list the color.)

Primer: This is optional. I did not use primer on my acorns but will do so in the future. The spray paint surprisingly scrapes off very easily. So if you want to skip primer, handle the nuts with care after they’ve been painted.

Spray the nuts in rows starting with the row closest to you. Then turn the whole thing and start again—keep going until you’ve rotated to and sprayed all four sides.

(Those orange seeds pods are called Putka Pods. Super cute and PERFECT for fall right?)

BONUS PROJECT:

This autumn wreath was made using a wreath form found at the dollar store. Cut it in half like a bagel, then wrap one half with either a dark cloth or ribbon (I recommend black or dark brown) so the green styrofoam doesn’t show. Use hot glue to attach all your ingredients. It’s quite easy, just take your time!

I hope this helped you think of some autumn projects to spice up your home this fall season.

SUPPLIES FOR BOWL CANDLE HOLDER:

Pillar candle

Wooden Bowl

Acorns

Putka pods (about 1-2 oz)

Small pinecones (1 bag)

Bleach (if needed)

Hot glue and gun

SUPPLIES FOR WREATH

Small styrofoam wreath form

Acorns

Putka pods (about 1-2 oz)

Small pinecones (1 bag)

Medium small pinecones (at least 5 but more is better)

Hot glue and gun (this takes a lot of glue)

Dark ribbon or cloth, enough length to wrap around the wreath form

Ribbon for bow and hanging