advent

yesterday was spent frantically knocking up an advent calendar for the boys (last minute, moi?)...i eventually came up with this 'tree' made from stuff i had kicking about. the background is a large piece of cardboard covered in wrapping paper, i used little wages envelopes i had in my stash (i love office supply stuff...) as a place to hide the treats. i printed out the numbers using different fonts in red ink and used a scalloped circle paper punch in two sizes to make them look pretty with some ikea wrapping paper. finally i filled the envelopes with choccies and pinned them up in a tree shape using dressmakers pins. there are a thousand different things that would improve this - little pegs glued onto the background to hold the treats instead of pins that might prick little fingers being one of them. however, for a really quick and easy solution this works well - and it works on two levels: the boys think it rocks (but then it has chocolate in it, i bet they don't really give a shite about how it looks...) and i think it looks funky yet tasteful, which is all you could ask for in an advent calendar, surely?

cute advent calendar tute

i thought you might like to see something a little different from me today, so i figured out a way of making a very sweet advent calendar for the boys...welcome to my first tute!

you will need:
24 little buckets (i bought mine from a florist's shop)
length of rough string (diy store)
24 tiny pegs (craft shop)
24 little tags (office supply shop)
computer printout of the numbers 1-24 (i used 'arial' font in a size 36, you can be more fancy, i just wanted frank to be able to read it clearly...i also printed mine on to graph paper for an interesting texture)
24 five inch (12 cm) pieces of pretty ribbon
you will also need:
scissors
ruler
marker pen
paper glue
pva glue (optional)

1) firstly, take the string and measure around 12" (30cm) and mark using a felt-tip or marker. then measure every 4" (10cm) 24 times. these marks are where the buckets will be tied. leave another 12" at the other end and cut the string. these long ends can be used for tying up the buckets however you decide to display them.

2) tie each bucket at each mark using a small length of the rough string. do this VERY tightly so when the buckets hang they don't slip. tie a double knot then trim the ends. if you like you can dab a bit of pva glue on the knot. leave to dry. (just thought, so you don't have to wait for the pva to dry, you could use a hot glue gun)

3) hide the string knots by tying the pretty ribbon around them. i just double knotted it and left the ends hanging, but you can tie a bow if you wish.

4) take your sheet of printed numbers and cut them out. glue them onto your paper tags. if you haven't any tags, just regular card stock cut into rectangles is fine.
5) use the pegs to attach the numbered tags onto the buckets. you can do this in order, or randomly for the children to hunt for :) fill each bucket with a handful of treats, and hang over a stair banister, mantle, or like me over a dresser.
6) stand back and admire your brilliance, and wait for many, many compliments on your fabulous display!


i do hope this all makes sense, and if you decide to make one, let me know how it turns out! enjoy!
UPDATE: if you can't be bothered with all this faff but like the look of the calendar, the same idea can be bought from www.decorativecountryliving.co.uk (sorry that's not a posh link, for some reason i can't get those to work at all today, either on here or on flickr, grrr) although when i went on the website i couldn't actually find it, which is helpful. not.