DIY Advent Calendar

This year, I decided to make an advent calendar for my kids.  Although we do have an advent calendar that counts down the days until Christmas, I surprisingly have never purchased one of those cardboard advent calendars where you get a piece of chocolate for each day.  And as exciting as it is to count down the days until Christmas, it's even more fun when you add chocolate!  The nice thing about making your own advent calendar is that it is reusable.  And every year, you can choose something different (or not) to put inside the bags.  For this Christmas season, I decided to use hershey kisses! (I also wanted to add a Bible verse for each day, but time would not allow it!  That may be next year's addition!) 

What I used:
24 Muslin treat bags
24 assorted chipboard forms (ornament, reindeer, snowflake, snowman)
acrylic paints (red, white and green)
small spongebrush
number stencil
black sharpie
Christmas hershey kisses
cork board
straight(sewing) pins
small hole puncher

*The chipboard forms were found in the dollar bins at Michaels, 12/$1.  The Muslin treat bags were found in the wedding aisle.

I started by putting a hole in the top of each chipboard form, and then painted each one using the acrylic paint and a small spongebrush.  I painted both sides, waiting for the first side to dry before painting the other side. (They dried fast, about 10 minutes)

Next, I used a number stencil and a black sharpie to number each bag 1-24.  *Note: Make sure you place a piece of thick paper or cardboard inside the bag when you write the number to avoid the black ink bleeding through to the back side of the bag.

Once the chipboards were dry, I untied the string on each treat bag, slid the chipboard form on the string, and reknotted it.  I filled each bag with 2 hershey kisses (one for each of my kids).

Without taking exact measurements, I laid out my treat bags on the corkboard to figure out the best spacing and how many to put in each row.  I made 4 rows of 6 bags.  I placed the pins in the corkboard to hang the bags. (The nice thing about using pins and a corkboard is that you can move them if needed.)

 
And that is it!  With a little bit of time and effort, you can make your own advent calendar to enjoy for many years to come!



By the way, if you enjoyed Hooch's post about the Festival of Trees, I will be posting next week a tour of the festival of trees at Casa de B!  : )

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