DIY: Felt & Glitter Advent Calendar

One last Advent Calendar to share with you today - this one's all pretty vintage colours and glitter. Perfectly winter wonderland-y.

I teamed up with Renae of Benzie Bazaar (purveyor of the loveliest felt) to create a fantastic forever felt advent calendar. Find the details over on Oh My! Handmade Goodness.

DIY Shipping Tag Advent Calendar

Looking for a great activity-based Advent Calendar? Join Marisa over on Poppytalk today and learn how to make this Shipping Tag Advent Calendar.

DIY Kraft + Washi Tape Advent Calendar

Have a little fun with washi tape while creating a modern Advent Calendar. Fill with treats like small holiday ornaments, individually wrapped chocolates or even single rolls of tape. We think brown kraft paper and washi tape are great companions, especially with a little festive gold shine.

The daily Advent bags can be pinned to a corkboard or clipped to a length of twine to create a garland.

This simple project is one of the "hands-on, brain-off" variety. Meaning, it's an easy one to work away at while watching TV at the end of the day. Let's get started, shall we?!

Materials:

Small Kraft Bags x 24

Washi Tape

Number Stamps + Inkpad

Scissors

Pushpins/Tacks + Corkboard or Twine + Mini Clothespins

Decorate the mini kraft bags with desired washi tape patterns. You can apply the same design to all the bags, mix and match a selection of designs, or even try a different design on each bag!

Fold over the top of the kraft bag and crease. Flip over and apply washi tape to the flap you have just created.

Trim excess washi tape from the edges of the flap.

Stamp numbers 1 through 24 on the decorated bags.

If attaching to a cork board, as in our example, first cover standard tacks/pushpins with washi tape.

Fill with desired Advent treat and pin to cork board or clip to twine to create a garland.

We pinned our Advent bags to the customized cork board seen here. As, day by day, the bags are removed, the Christmas message beneath is revealed.

We'll be sharing another Advent Calendar idea next week - hope you'll pop by to see that one too!

DIY: Glam Glassine Advent Calendar

Make a simple but glam glassine Advent Calendar. Metallic ink and glitter twine add a little holiday sparkle to basic glassine bags.

Materials:
Small Glassine Bags x 24
Twine
Metallic Marker
Washi Tape (or other low tack tape)
Mini Clothespins x 24

Print out the numbers 1-24 using the desired font and size. We used size 125 Bernard MT Condensed. Your printed numbers should fit on 2 standard 8.5 x 11" sheets of paper. Cut printout into individual numbers.

Using your washi tape, attach the first number to the back of a glassine bag. Flip over, you will be able to see the number through the translucent bag. Adjust until you achieve the desired position.

Trace around the number with the metallic marker. Tip - tape the the bag to your work surface so that it doesn't move around while you trace.

Allow ink to dry. Carefully remove the washi tape. Repeat with the remaining bags.

Fill the bags with your choice of Advent treat. The mini bags are perfectly sized for small treats like individually wrapped chocolates or single rolls of washi tape. Please note - glassine is translucent, if you don't want to be able to see the item through the bag, wrap each day's gift in white or gold tissue before placing inside the bag.

Fold over the top of the bags and clip to the twine. Make sure to sandwich the twine in the folded crease of the glassine bag - see images above.

We'd love to know - do you celebrate Advent? If so, what do you like to find in your Advent calendar? Classic chocolate or some other treat?

DIY Advent Calendars

Weekday Carnival / Ikea Holiday via Babble / snug.studio
the marion house book / Oh Happy Day / Twig & Thistle
A Few Things From My Life / dandee / Martha Stewart

It's November... and you know what that means....

Time to start thinking about this year's Advent Calendar! Here are some of the Advent ideas and tutorials we're loving this year.

Whether you prefer small trinkets, chocolate or activities, I'm sure we can all agree that counting down to Christmas helps carry that holiday spirit right through the month of December. An Advent calendar doesn't have to be complicated, even the simplest are extra-special when made with love.

Here are our simple ideas from the last 2 years - a garland of colourful bitty bags, a tower of washi tape decorated boxes.

For more Advent Calendar ideas, visit here and here.

We'll be sharing more Advent ideas throughout the week.

How do you celebrate Advent? Seen any amazing Advent calendar ideas you'd like to share? Tell us all  about it in the comments!

DIY Simple Advent Calendar

Last year, we told you all about our love affair with Advent Calendars! And shared lots of great DIY calendar ideas - here, here, and here!

Do you celebrate Advent? It's pretty much our favourite part of the holiday season!

There are some great Advent Calendars out there which you can use year after year, but it's also fun to mark the days a little differently each year. Last year's calendar was a tower of washi taped boxes, but this year we were inspired by the cute Bitty Bags in the shop.

Since the bags are food safe and recyclable, you can pop your Advent treats directly in them and then recycle the bags once the treats are all gone! (Or reuse them next year, if you're gentle!)

To make your own, you'll need:

• 24 Bitty Bags in your choice of colours
• Divine Twine in your choice of colours (about 12 yards in total)
• Hole Punch
• Number Stamps & ink (or you can just write the numbers on)

Stamp (or write) numbers 1 to 24 on the bags. Allow to dry.

Insert your advent treats. Fold over the tops and punch 2 holes about an inch apart. Thread approximately 12" (30cm) of twine through the holes from the back and tie into a bow.

That's it, pretty simple right?

Now it's up to you to decide how to display your Advent calendar - attach the bags to a wreath, put them into a basket, pin onto a bulletin board, or hang on a wall or mantle like we did.

If you'd like to hang the calendar, simply thread a long piece of twine through the twine loops at the back of each bag. To remove each day's treat, simply untie the bow and pull (gently) the bag off!

This Advent calendar is still empty (and looking a little sad on that not-Christmasfied mantel), but by the 1st of December it will be filled with yummy goodies - I'm thinking dark chocolate covered almonds and Serenata de Amor (my favourite Brazilian treats - chocolates filled with cashew cream). You just can't get that goodness in a store-filled calendar.

Will you be celebrating Advent this year? What do you hope to find in your Advent calendar?

Want to make a simple Advent Calendar like ours? Pick up one of our Christmas Bitty Packaging Sets - 24 Bitty Bags and 2 colours of Divine Twine. Available in Red & Green or choose Custom and pick your own colours!

A Little More Advent...

We're almost done with November... is your Advent calendar ready?  Here are a few more ideas for those of you with lots of will, but not so much time!

Advent Tree from Paige + Modern via Poppytalk

Easy Advent Calendar - Design*Sponge / Prudent Baby

Advent Garland - Country Living

Baby Sock Advent Calendar - Martha

Cone-iferous Advent Calendar - Family Fun

Need more: See our first round-up of Advent Ideas here.  Check out our Washi Tape Advent Calendar.

DIY Advent Calendar

Here's our take on a fill-your-own Advent Calendar.  It's simple, reusable and uses our beloved mt washi tape.  What more could we ask for this Christmas?

You'll need 24 small boxes.  We chose white, but kraft would look wonderful too.

Place a small gift or candy or a slip of paper with a Christmas wish or activity into each box.

Wrap washi tape around the boxes like ribbon.  We chose 2 colours, imagining that 2 people would share this calendar - Green Tartan and Red Honmame, available on Omiyage.ca

Cut 24 squares of card stock / art paper in desired colour.  Cut 24 squares of white card stock / art paper slightly smaller than your coloured paper.

Write the numbers from 1 to 24 on the white squares.  (You could also print your numbers).

Glue the numbered squares to the coloured squares.  Glue to front of boxes.

Stack your boxes in whatever form you desired.  When opening, if the tape is slit rather than removed, this calendar can easily be reused.

We picked up our boxes at Solutions.  Find Japanese washi tape in over 50 colours and patterns at Omiyage.ca

Advent Calendars

Growing up, and even today, Advent has been a big deal in our family.  Counting down each day to Christmas has been a special tradition that we probably cherish more than the big day itself.

Martha Stewart

When we were younger, my sister and I would share an Advent wreath.  We would take turns, opening a small gift every other day from December 1st to the 24th.  Nothing extravagant, when we were little we might unwrap a bottle of green or red glitter, perhaps a festive pair of socks.  When we were a little older there might've been a new tube of mascara or Christmas earrings.  There certainly was always chocolate!

Julie Ree via Kim Vallee

Over the years, our Advent calendars have taken different forms - boxes, baskets, trees, stockings. But each one has brought with it the joy of the season.

Skip to My Lou

Advent calendars remain one of our favourite parts of the season -  calendars you can fill with gifts or surprises of your own choosing.

Canadian Living

Do you celebrate Advent in your family?  We've included images of some of our favourite handmade Advent calendars from around the web for inspiration - click the images to be directed to instructions.

Sweet Paul

Looking for little gifts to add to your Advent calendar, or for stocking stuffers?  Omiyage has a wonderful selection of paper balloons, petite rubber stamps, mini origami paper and more!