Oh No, Only 10 Days Until December
November 21st, 2007 by SimoneI grew up in Germany and advent calendars were always a big deal in my family. I remember this beautiful embroidered calendar my mother made for my aunt with all kinds of interesting little packages attached to it. My brother and I would discover calendars made out of matchboxes and walnut shells or just wrapped up little packages tied together with string. Last year, my mother even put together a calendar for my brother’s dog. So in the spirit of the season, I went online to browse for some inspiration for this year’s calendar.
Paper Calendars
Kids Craft Weekly explains how to put together a cute origami cup calendar. You could also make little origami boxes as explained by Lisa Lam from U-handblog, or just simple cones and fill them with goodies.
Another fun idea from Kinder Stadt is to use toilet paper rolls and to turn them into snowmen, Santa Clauses, or penguins.
If you have the space you could create a whole village of 24 houses. Marilyn Scott-Waters of The Toymaker has a great template for a house complete with chimney.
Fabric
Jenny B. Harris of Allsorts just reposted instructions for her felt pocket calendar. I think you could also re-purpose her elf shoes. You could make 12 pairs of shoes and hang them from a clothesline.
Last year, Susie of Susie’s Country Garden made a garland of little stockings.
Eldrid Røyset Førde from Bremanger, Norway has English instructions for a different stocking type calendar.
I also like this quick calendar by Shizzyknits.
Other Materials
Splitcoaststampers has a tutorial for a calendar using little favor tins.
Miniature terracotta pots are another popular starting point for advent calendars. Turn them upside down, add a Styrofoam ball for a head, and paint them to make Santas, elves, snowmen, etc. Then either glue them on top of the box that will contain the gift, or cover the bottom with felt and/or cardboard to hide the gift in the pot itself. Here is a German tutorial from Creadoo with pictures of “potty” creatures to give you some ideas.
I’ve finished my calendar what do I put inside?
If you are still recovering from a Halloween candy hangover and are worried about lead levels in gum ball machine toys, you may want to consider filling your calendar with different activities. Kiddley has a list of activities you could use. You could also put pictures of friends and family in your calendar and put together a progressive collage, or collect or make some ornaments to hide in the calendar and then hang off a branch or your tree.
For more inspiration, go to flicker and search for pictures in the adventcalendar cluster.
November 21st, 2007 at 5:38 am
What great ideas! I think I’m going to make one of these
Thanks!
November 21st, 2007 at 5:51 am
[...] The Genre Files wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOh No, Only 10 Days Until December November 21st, 2007 by Simone [IMG houseedit500.jpg] I grew up in Germany and advent calendars were always a big deal in my family. I remember this beautiful embroidered calendar my mother made for my aunt with all kinds of interesting little packages attached to it. My brother and I would discover calendars made out of matchboxes and walnut shells or just wrapped up little packages tied together with string. Last year, my mother even put together a calend [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 5:54 am
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptOh No, Only 10 Days Until December November 21st, 2007 by Simone [IMG houseedit500.jpg] I grew up in Germany and advent calendars were always a big deal in my family. I remember this beautiful embroidered calendar my mother made for my aunt with all kinds of interesting little packages attached to it. My brother and I would discover calendars made out of matchboxes and walnut shells or just wrapped up little packages tied together with string. Last year, my mother even put together a calend [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 11:48 am
[...] If you, too, are planning on making an Advent type calendar, then you you will LOVE the collection of ideas at Crafty Daisies! [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Thanks so much for the ideas Simone. I’m so excited to check them out. I’ve been wanting to do an advent calendar for my little girl for a while now. Can’t wait to start.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I love all of these ideas! I’ve been thinking of doing something because we are not decorating this year since we are moving the week or so before Christmas. I really don’t like moving around the holidays, but a calendar can be something small and we can take it in the car with us!
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
These are such cute ideas! I miss doing advent calendars, I haven’t done one for years – they were a tradition when I was little, though. I think it will be a newly restored tradition for my family this year. I’m loving the tube penguins and the blanket stitched circles. Thanks for the tips and suggestions!
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:10 am
Awesome! I’ve been wanting a great advent calendar for my daughter!
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:22 am
Thank you for the links. I decided today to make an advent calendar for my new daughter (I also grew up with the German tradition), I had decided on Eldrid’s calendar, but I’m off to check out some of the other’s first.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
[...] roundup of tutorials for advent calendars from WhipUp and another from CraftyDaisies. (via Curbly)Who knew advent was so popular? I don’t even remember what [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
[...] roundup of tutorials for advent calendars from WhipUp and another from CraftyDaisies. (via Curbly)Who knew advent was so popular? I don’t even remember what [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
[...] roundup of tutorials for advent calendars from WhipUp and another from CraftyDaisies. (via Curbly)Who knew advent was so popular? I don’t even remember what [...]
November 28th, 2007 at 7:36 am
[...] roundup of tutorials for advent calendars from WhipUp and another from CraftyDaisies. (via Curbly)Who knew advent was so popular? I don’t even remember what [...]
December 6th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
[...] late this year, is there an easy way to make about a dozen of them inexpensively, but nice? Ivy: Crafty Daisies has a great post rounding up several kinds of Advent calendars, I’m sure one of them would work for [...]
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