Christmas Advent Calendar

You know those chocolate Advent calendars? Well they are great and all but wouldn’t it be better if you could make your own? I will go step by step and show you how to make your own amazing Christmas Advent calendar! YAY!

Materials:           

Metal sheet as your backdrop (You can even use a metal flat cookie sheet)

Tin cans (we got our from pick your plum)

Triple pack of PenBlades (DUH)

Lots of Christmas Craft paper

Sticker Numbers and letters (countdown and the letters December)

A Cricut (If you don’t have one, you can still do it! Just give yourself more time)

Glue dots or strips

Washi tape (not totally necessary)

Ribbon

Magnets

Hot Glue

Once you have your base measure it out and see how many squares you can fit across it. Mine was big enough I could fit 5 down and 5 across. Yes, you’ll need to do all 25 days! I was lucky enough to have 25 different colored/patterned papers. But please, make it your own! Be creative! 
Create a template for your squares depending on how many and how big you can make them to fit on your backdrop. Then whatever tins you have trace those and make a template for your circles. They also have square tins too. So take your pick or get whatever you can find.
 

Use your template and your #11 PenBlade to cut your squares and then your #10 or #15 to cut your circles. With your tins that you get, trace that and just have the whole circle cover the container.

With my card stock I cut the square and circle on the same page right next to each other. Use the #11 blade for your squares and the #15 or #10 for your circles. Those have an easier time with curves.

Once they are all cut out, glue the circles onto your containers using the glue dots or strips. Hot glue could work but it will make your paper uneven.

Then place your squares however you would like them and use the glue strips attach them to the base.

Next I used Washi tape to make a grid line. It breaks it up a little nicer and adds sparkle!

Now grab your magnets and hot glue those to the back of your tins and let those sit. It’s surprising how long it takes a magnet and hot glue and metal to all stick together.

So now you have your base finished and your tins almost finished. Now for the top DECEMBER part. You have a few options. 1. You can buy some blank tags and add your letters to them or 2. You can cut out your own tags.

All right once you have your tags cut, place your sticky letters that you got before onto the tags and then grab some ribbon and thread it through. Then glue strip those on your backdrop as well. All right, now stick everything in its place. Add your magnetized tins to wherever it looks good and then you’ll add your sticky day numbers to each tin. These stickers were a pain in the butt! So I used the #10 blade to help get the stickers to peal from the sheet and strategically place them straight on the tins.

 Well, Congrats! Now you have your Christmas Advent Calendar!

So cute I know.

Soon to come is a list of things you can put inside your tins!