Easy Peasy Advent Calendar~Tuesday’s Tip

For years the girls have wanted to make their own advent calendars.

There just never seemed the time to get it done in time nor the money to spend.  There are many different types of advent calendars and they can get quite costly. 

We came up with this idea using existing craft supplies from the girls stash and it was easy enough for all the kids to work on it, without me having to intervene because something was too hard for them.  I admit, being the control freak creative type at Christmas time for me to walk away and not put my two cents in was challenging, but in the end the kids had fun and have a sense of pride knowing something they have created is going to be used each year as part of “mommy's” decor!

We started with scrapbook paper and cardstock, scissors, a circle template, sequins, computer printed numbers, ribbon, double sided tape and glue gun.

We printed off numbers 1-25 and used our circle template to trace the circles to cut out-you can use dollar store stickers if your local store has them.  That would save a lot of time but our dollar store did not, so we had no choice but to do it the long way…

We used the card stock and scrapbook paper for the advent calendar-which you will see is not the traditional advent calendar.

Wrap the paper into a cone and staple low enough that the staple can be hidden on the back.

Then use double sided tape to attach the wrapped paper together to form the cone.

For the cones made with cardstock we used the glue gun to keep the cone

wrapped up after it was stapled on the back. 

Then we decorated them, I got to do Christmas day since there was a left over from distributing the amount evenly..so here’s mine

The kids used ribbon, sequins, beads, and extra paper to decorate them, and we hung them on a bunch of willow twigs.  As each day passes they remove them from the twigs and get the treat inside.

I even let them arrange them on the twigs and refrained from re arranging them!

Some treats that you could use, the basic staple; chocolate, mint candies, or try stickers, silly bands, jokes, notes like “eat dessert first”, “rent a movie”, or what I know will be their favourite; “get out of a chore”!

Today’s advent; chocolate and silly bands!  

You can hang the cones from your tree, from a ribbon along a window, across the back of a door, down a staircase…

Total cost if you were going to buy the supplies which are all available at the dollar store come to under 5 dollars!  Not bad for a afternoon project that your kids can be proud of-oh and here’s the tip for TUESDAY;

If you are like me; a control freak and love to decorate for Christmas, but have had a hard time letting the kids get involved-get over it :).   

It is too important for them to help create the memories and decor plus you never know what designer, architect, inventor and the like may be growing inside your wee one!

thought I would link this up other sites that highlights cost effective ideas and crafts!