Gingerbread Advent Calendar

After being stretched thin, this year's advent calendars had to be a little quicker to make than those of past years. Here's how to do it:

Grab a Christmas village building at the local craft store. There are different styles, they have a light in them and are quite cheap! You just have to get to them before they sell out.

With a circular drill bit, cut a hole in the back about 1.7 inches in diameter. You may want to sand the opening.

Then from a similar piece of wood (buy it at the craft store) cut a larger circle about 2.5 inches in diameter. You may want to sand the edges.

Now you can paint everything brown. Mix baking soda in with the paint before you begin if you want to try a gingerbread texture as seen below.

Attach velcro to the back of the door and house to keep the door on. If your door has a hole in the center from the drill, use a button or crafting brad to cover it up. (I tried a red button I happened to have on hand but the paint wouldn't adhere to it—it didn't adhere to the brad that well either.)

Puff paint can be used for the frosting effect. Though, it's kind of clunky and difficult to get fine details with. Try paint and a brush if you want more detailed control.

Next, wrap 25 little gifts and stuff them into the house. Close it all up and gift it away!

For my advents, I usually include a piece of candy for each person and an age appropriate activity prompt. Here is my list of activities for a young family.

Handmade Advent Calendar

 

Watch how to make this advent calendar out of crafting tubes and Christmas paper.

Buy candy in bulk and add slips of paper with silly little prompts on them—customize them for age. (For example: For a three year old...What do you think Santa eats for breakfast when he gets back from delivering all the presents?)

An example of another color scheme.

How to Age Paper with Coffee and Salt

Below is a video on how to age paper using instant coffee and salt. This is the technique I used for the EPIC pirate party we threw last year. The paper shown in this video was used to make the book pictured.

 

Materials:

• Instant coffee.
• Baking tray or dish large enough to hold paper.
• Cardstock (preferable) cream color. (recommended)
• Table salt.
• Paper towels and old dish towels (they'll get stained.)
  

Tips:

1. The pages don't need much soaking time. If the water is on the hot side—the paper accepts the coffee very quickly. If the water is very hot you will see splotching that you may not like...this normally goes away after the paper dries.
   
2. For deckled edges: create the edges before dyeing, not after.
3. Give yourself room to experiment. No two papers will be exactly alike!

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

DIY Ombre Valentine Pompom Wreath

With all this extra time at home we have these days I thought I'd let the creative juices flow and come up with my own unique ombre Valentine’s Day Pompom wreath design! 

In my closet I have a bunch of wreath forms left over from the dollar store, Additionally, I have a friend who, having just acquired a few bags full of yarn was also looking for some way to use up her supply. 

So we got together on Zoom, we started crafting!

Here are the supplies you will need for your ombre Valentine pompom wreath:

– 10 inch wreath form (most dollar stores carry these. Yes, mine is cut in half like a bagel—it was my genius penny pinching idea to get more forms for less.) The finished wreath will be around 13 or 14 inches in diameter. 

– Red felt (Spend a little more for the good thick stuff.)

– Three skeins of yarn for making pompoms (medium pink, light pink, cream)

– 1.8 inch pompom maker, I bought  mine on Amazon here. Four sizes are included in the box.)

– Wooden house ornament (The one I used came from World Market but is now sold out. However I have done a search for other options and styles and will include links to those at the end of this post.)

– Hot glue and gun

– Scissors

– Pink sewing floss and needle

– Corsage pins (optional, and I’ll explain why in step five of the directions)

FIRST

You’ll want to start crafting those cute soft pompoms with a 1.8 inch pompom maker as soon as possible. Pick your favorite show to set up in front of and get to wrapping, tying, clipping and shaping! You will need about:

15 medium pink pompoms

6 transition from medium to light pink pompoms (just alternate the colors you are using as you are wrapping. For mine, I wrapped one side half way with medium pink, then finished with light pink. And then for the other half I reversed the order in which I used the colors.)

15 light pink pompoms

6 transition from light pink to cream pompoms

15 cream pompoms

Note: you CAN skip making the transition pompoms, but I think they go a long way to helping the ombre effect look more smooth.

SECOND

Using your hot glue, begin attaching the pompoms. It’s easier to put the glue on the wreath form and then attach pompom. Glue a pompom on either side of the form and one in the middle and don’t be afraid to snuggle them right up against each other.

Start with either your lightest color or your darkest. When you are ready to attach your transition colors you will then start working from side to side of the form. The right side gets three transition colors, and then the left side gets three. Then, move on to the middle solid color, still working back and forth from side to side so everything stays even.

THIRD

Cut out multiple size hearts out of your felt, the example shows 13. And now that your wreath is assembled you can more easily see what size hearts you want make. 

FOURTH

Using your needle and floss, stitch around the edges of each heart. Use an overcast or whip stitch. This will give them a finished look.

*FIFTH

Get ready to attach your hearts. Lay them out on the wreath to see how you would like them to look and where you would like them to rest. Notice amongst the large bunch of hearts above the house, that the bottom tips of the hearts point toward the house chimney. This is because I want them to seem as if they  coming up out of the chimney. You can either glue them directly onto the wreath/pompoms OR you can try the following suggestion:

*Put a dab of hot glue on the back of a heart and place a corsage pin directly on top of it pointing up. (Corsage pins are longer than sewing pins.) When the glue is no longer hot, you can now push the hearts into the pompoms and turn them however you like. I personally like this option because first, I wanted more room to play with the placement of the hearts AFTER the wreath was done AND I like that the hearts almost seem like they are gently resting atop the pompoms instead of firmly pushed and glued into them. Does that make sense?

SIXTH

Figure out how you would like your little house to sit. Do you want it to be seen straight on as in the example? Or perhaps sitting at an angle? (Which I wish I had done now that I’ve been looking at it for a few days.) 

Trim down the pompoms the house will be sitting on so they are flat. Now the house can sit firmly and straight. Glue it down and your done with your ombre Valentine’s Day wreath!

Don’t forget to attach a ribbon or a loop to the back and it’s ready to hang! I hope you enjoy this ombre pompom Valentine’s Day craft project.

Links to little houses for the wreath:

TINSKY wooden lighted house on Amazon

Little wooden houses on Etsy from LFRustics

Simple house silhouette on Etsy from Bison Coating Supply 

Small cottages on Etsy from PaintingsbyElena

Hand painted block houses on Etsy from ANAMARKOkids

If you want to purchase a plain block house and paint it yourself, there are several vendors on Etsy, just do a quick search under “little wooden houses” and many options will come up. You also have the option of creating your own out of chipboard or construction paper and it could be really quite lovely!

Cute and Easy DIY Holiday Advent Calendar

This advent calendar craft project works well if you have scraps of pretty Christmas paper that need to be used up. Or if you just want a reason to purchase a pad of colorful holiday patterned paper, this is an easy, DIY holiday craft project to fill your afternoon. (Or get together with your friends and have a craft night!)

You will need the following supplies:

• Twenty-five 2x2x2 inch party favor boxes. (I found mine here, in a pack of 50—some for you AND a friend—and there are color options if you don’t prefer the Kraft color.) 

• Elmers or similar glue.

• Rubber cement (not necessary but I prefer to use it when I want to avoid wrinkling.)

• Clear wrapping tape or other.

• Scissors and/or Exacto knife.

• Fancy bakers twine (can be found at most craft stores.)

• 5 different sheets of pretty holiday patterned paper.

• Numbers on squares printed on cardstock. Click or tap here for the free printable file.

• Black cardstock (you don’t need much, a scrap piece will do.)

• Something to put in the boxes.

1. Print the sheet with numbers on cardstock and cut them out. Here is the free printable file. (You’ll notice there are two pages to print. The second, is for step 2.)

2. Print the sheet with the cut marks on the back of all your patterned paper. Cut them out. If you have five different patterns, you’ll need to cut five squares out of each.

3. Lay out all your patterned squares in whatever arrangement is most pleasing to you (as seen above) and start glueing the numbers to them. This is where I like to use the rubber cement. 

TIP: If you brush rubber cement on BOTH surfaces that will be sticking to one another, let them dry, and then put them together, you won’t get any wrinkling. AND you can simply rub off any excess making it easy to get each edge and each corner totally glued down.

4. Now you can glue all your squares to the lid of each box. Again, I used rubber cement for this part.

5. Cut a 1 inch strip of your black paper. Then slice the strip into “tabs” as seen below, a little larger than 1/4 of an inch wide. You could skip this part, but I don’t recommend it. The tabs help get the lids open because they interlock with the side flaps making them difficult to open when the advent calendar is completely assembled.

6. Using Elmers glue, attach each little black tab to the lip of the lid as seen above. I used the white glue here because it has a strong bond once dry.

7. Now you need to start attaching these little gift boxes to one another. You'll find that using both glue and tape will give you the most secure, tight fit. Note: don’t use tape on the joints that will be showing on the outer edge of the final project. I also found it helpful to tape the bottoms of the boxes together too. You can use packing tape for this to get FULL coverage.

8. Wrap your fancy bakers twine around the whole thing. I recommend looping it around at least five times for a more pleasing look. IMPORTANT: If you're filling the advent calendar boxes with light weight items you can attach something as shown in the image below so it can be hung. 

Please note: My finished piece held 2 pounds of candy and when I lifted it by the hang string, the corner boxes couldn’t hold the weight. But it still looks great laid down or leaned up against the wall.

9. Now it’s time to fill your advent calendar with prizes, things to do, little notes, or candy...whatever! Then tuck those lids securely in.

If you choose to go the candy route...I highly recommend going to a bin store like WinCo or Food4Less etc. It’s an inexpensive option, and that way each box can have something different to try.

That’s it! You’re done. It’s really so simple and will turn out cute. It’s a good holiday craft project!