Craft Night: Advent Calendar Paper Houses

Last Friday a friend and I decided to try and throw a last minute "Craft Night" and I do mean last minute. Like, I sent out invitations on Thursday.......last minute.

We wanted to make 12-day advent calendars so we just couldn't wait any longer for the proper length of time to plan a party. Despite the rush we managed to get a few friends together, including Beth from Home Stories A to Z and had a great time burning our fingers on hot glue, sipping wine and gushing over the adorable crafts!

Photo Home Stories A to Z

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Advent Calendar Bulb Ornaments

This year I'm doing Advent Calendar Bulb ornaments for the kids. I decided to simplify the gifts and do a 'theme' instead of random small gifts. For each of the girls I'm giving them a charm necklace on the first day with a new 'charm' for each subsequent day. Each charm will represent something about them. 

To present the gifts I filled clear plastic (not glass because they wouldn't last a day in our house) ornaments with hand made tissue paper confetti and placed the gifts in the center so they can't be seen. You can get fun with the confetti. Other color ideas are silver, green a mix of red green and gold....whatever! I used foam numbers dusted with glitter to indicate each day of the month leading up to Christmas. You can find the tutorial for the bulbs below. 

By the end of the month the girls should each have 25 charms on their necklace. The below photo is the first charm Lily received, a teapot, because she and my mother love to have 'afternoon tea' like the Brits;-)

I bought the first few charms at AC Moore but they were kind of pricey at $3 a piece. That's $6 a day! That's $150 over the whole month. But I searched online for the exact same charms called "Charmtastic" which I bought at AC Moore and they are currently selling at Janlynn.com for only 75 CENTS a piece!!!! Hopefully this isn't a cyber Monday thing and they'll stay that low for the whole month if you're interested in doing the same thing. Get my tutorial on how I made the balls below!

Materials:

Foam stick on numbers bought at a craft store

Clear plastic or glass ornaments (If you are putting larger items in the ornament you will need to buy the kind of plastic ornaments that open down the middle. Like these on Amazon.)

Modpodge

Paint Brush

Fine glitter
Tissue paper
Sharp scissors

Step 1: Using your finger or a brush cover the top of your foam number with modpodge. At first, I tried to use a spray on glue but the glitter didn't adhere well and it made the sticky back less effective.

Step 2: Stick on number to ball.

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10 Advent Calendar Ideas to Build On

If you're looking for Advent calendar present ideas I recommend checking out the major craft stores. Michaels, AC Moore and JoAnns. I can usually find a deluge of small knick knacks there. For me, with four kids (three of whom get Advent gifts) that can add up over 25 days! One idea is to buy one large thing and break it up into little pieces to dole out day by day. Some of these are neat because on the last day you have something you built together!

1. Charm necklace or bracelet.
But don't give it all at once. For Day 1 give the bracelet. Then give a charm for each day after. 25 charms seems like too much for a bracelet but a necklace might do. Or just do 12 days and then switch to something else. Places that have charms are AC Moore. Janlynn. Etsy.

2. Lego House Replica
Buy all the bricks needed to replicate your house. Then divide them by 25 days and slowly build the house each day! Brick Link is the best place for buying legos by the brick. You wouldn't have to do your house. Pick anything and let it be a surprise as the structure slowly comes together.

3. Money
Plain 'ol money could be fun too! But do it in a cute way. Give them a piggy bank on the first day and then each day after give them various sums that they have to save in the bank. Sometimes give 50 cents, sometimes $1. Maybe give them a $20 on the last day! Maybe even fold the dollar bills in cute shapes and let them unfold to see what the amount is. Here are some cute ways to fold money.

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Advent Ideas: Peg People

I think this would make a great advent calendar gift. Paint characters your favorite kids tv show or movie. I'd make these for Molly as Jake and the Neverland Pirates. (Jake, Hook, Izzy, Cubby, Skully, Smee, Peter Pan, Crock). She'd love it! Top two via Simple Simon & Co. You can buy the blank wooden peg people via Casey's Wood Products for pretty cheap.

Via KnottingWood.

Source: sewcakemake.blogspot.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

Advent Calendar: Day 25

Ever since I saw the movie Annie when I was 7 I have had a secret love for lockets. So I planned on ending this year's Advent boxes with a homemade locket for Lily and Molly.

I bought these lockets at Createforless.com for only $2.19 a piece. I then added the ribbon and clasps from some extra pieces in my scrap stash. So the entire project cost $5 plus shipping.

I liked the lockets at Create For Less because they were large enough to put a picture that you could fit more than just a face in and they were also colorful enough to be eye candy for the kids. Gold and silver jewelry is great too but I think the girls preferred the design on the front. They had several other designs to choose from as well.

The photos were made in Photoshop as 1.5" circles. I then cut them out and used Zig glue to paste them in the lockets. Zig glue or rubber cement is best because it's not permanent so if I want to use a different picture later it won't be too difficult to remove. I applied the glue to the locket then the picture and let them dry separately. Then stuck them together.

Lily said it was her favorite of all the Advent boxes which was exactly what I had hoped for.

The girls are excited for next year's surprises!

Advent Calendar: Day 5

Lily and Molly LOVE Angry Birds. Lily actually does pretty well with it. At the wedding Lily discovered by playing other people's phones that there are multiple versions and has now spent the past few days enjoying Angry Birds "Rio" and Angry Birds "Seasons". So for Day 5 I made two barrettes out of pompoms representing all the original Angry Birds and they really got a kick out of it!

This would also work with wool felted balls or homemade pompoms. In fact, if you made homemade felted balls or homemade pompoms you could add in other colors for the belly rather than gluing on felt.

I think I would have preferred to use felted wool or homemade pompoms but I didn't have the right colors on hand. The pompoms were available at the dollar store. All I did was cut them down to the corresponding size or in the case of the yellow bird, I cut his sides in a pyramid shape.

Lily really loved hers but she didn't want to wear it to school. Apparently, only "boys" like Angry Birds;)

But Molly happily wore hers to preschool.

I should make the pigs next!

Silhouette Advent Tree Calendar

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon and evening finishing up a project I had been planning for the kids next month. A little while back Lily had shown a surprising lack of knowledge when it came to the origins of Christmas. So I thought making an advent calendar to mark down the holiday and include little Christmas related facts along with a piece of chocolate and a little homemade gift might excite them. I didn't know exactly how I was going to make the calendar just that I would do it myself.
So after perusing a few ideas on the internet I decided to do advent boxes that were hung in the tree with corresponding numbers on the front AND I used my new Silhouette to get me there! Like I said, the new Silhouette has a much wider 12" cutting area opposed to their 9". Three inches makes a LOT of difference. My boxes came out much bigger than they used to and I was able to use 12"x12" Christmas printed cardstock from Michaels. All together this entire project only cost me the expense of the paper which was $10 for 48 sheets. I really only needed around 30 so I have 18 extra to use as I like.
I went on their website and choose 16 different 3D box patterns. I used a Silhouette gift card which went a LONG way this weekend. Patterns were only 50¢ a piece! That's half off! That really adds up when you're getting multiple patterns. Of course, you could do this project with just one box pattern but I just wanted to mix things up a bit. Then I also bought 3 sets of numbers patterns to add to the front of each box.

I colored in the numbers on the front with a brown marker so they would stand out against the background and so the kids could find them easily on the tree. I also added holes in the pattern when needed and strung a thin chocolate brown string through each box to hang from the tree.
The best thing about these boxes is that I can use them next year and the year after....etc and they only took a day to make all 25 including the trip to Michaels.

Now, all I have to do is think of a tiny project to include for each day of the month. I think I might just be putting candy in a few of them but I'll try to make a project for as many as I can and post on Grosgrain. My first box will be little fabric flower hair clips, a Reese's peanut butter cup and a Christmas fact. Do any of you have any good suggestions for small homemade gifts to include in the boxes. Nothing that takes all day, maybe an hour TOPS. So far I've got rings, headbands, seeds, monogrammed mittens and a Christmas pin.
I tried to use the Silhouette to cut stiffened felt but it didn't work. It didn't bunch up or anything but it only cut halfway through the surface. I'm still not giving up. Trying to think of other things.

Well.....I'm off to research mini crafts:) Wish me luck!