Sparkly Ornament Advent Calendar

Well ho ho ho hello there!  I'm so happy to be back here again this month!  I'm stepping away from my usual food posts, and instead I've got a little Christmas project to share with you.  I know, Christmas feels very far away, but it's not really, especially if you want to make your own advent calendar which needs to be ready for December 1!

Every year we have advent calendars for the kids and they love the countdown to the big day (secrets be told, I do too)!  I've always just bought those candy or picture advent calendars, but this year I wanted to do something a little different and make my own.  I was inspired by this advent calendar that I saw on Bower Power blog a couple of years ago, so when I received a box of ornaments in the mail recently, I knew they would make an amazing advent calendar.

The idea with this advent calendar is that there is a unique ornament for each day leading up to Christmas that the kids can hang on our tree.

Here's How To:

Materials:

• A picture frame
• A piece of cork board to fit the frame
• Paper or fabric to cover the cork board
• 25 paper key tags (you can find these in any office supply store)
• 25 silver push pins
• 25 ornaments
• number stamps & silver stamping ink
• Large ribbon for hanging the frame.

Instructions:

• First choose a frame for your calendar, then string through a 2 1/2 foot long ribbon for hanging.
• Then cut a piece of cork board to fit the frame, and wrap it in paper or fabric.  I liked this sparkly wrapping paper, as it was very forgiving when I needed to move around the push pins…it hid tiny holes well.
• Place the covered cork board firmly into the frame.
• Chose 25 different ornaments to hang in the frame.
• To mark each day, you can use paper key tags, and stamp them with the number of the day.
• Now it's time to hang the ornaments!  First lay out the ornaments approximately where you would like to hang them.
• Use a push pin to first hang the date tag, then the ornament.

That's it!  SO simple!

Here's what mine looks like all done!  Sparkly, fun & festive!

The fun part of making your own advent calendar is you can tailor it to your own Christmas decor.  Have fun with colours, textures and different kinds of ornaments!

Here are some ideas for your calendar:

• Use a picture frame that you can hang on your wall each season.
• Or put heavy duty magnets on the back of the frame so that you can hang it on your fridge.
• Keep the background on the frame neutral so you can change the ornaments every year.  I just used silver sparkly wrapping paper.

Instead of tree ornaments you can hang:

• Little envelopes with Christmas messages.
• Or put a little note in an envelope that has a seasonal activity to do for that day:  things like skating, make hot chocolate, go for a walk, bake cookies…
• You can hang little bags filled with candy.
• Fill envelopes or little boxes with tiny treasures like money, earrings, erasers…fun little dollar store items.

I hope I inspired you to make an advent calendar of your own!

Thank you so much for reading today!  Have a wonderful day!

Feel free to stop on by anytime!  I'd love to have you!

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