Easy, Fast and Beautiful Advent Calendar

Time flies, and it’s only a little more than a month until Christmas. If you need a last-minute advent calendar which is easy to make, looks great and doesn’t cost a fortune, go on reading:

Step 1: What You Need

The basis for each calendar is a simple 12×12 sheet of scrapbooking paper glued to a 12×12 piece of sturdy cardboard. As I love to repurpose stuff, I use old covers of vinyl records ;)

You further need:
paper glue
scissors, cutter knife, cutting mat
a 3/4 inch circle punch or stamps/stickers with numbers
thin ribbon
hole punch, for example the Crop-a-Dile
24 printed stories/recipes/quotes
if you like, my file with premade numbers

Step 2: Add Numbers

I used a 3/4 inch circle punch to create numbers which match the colors of my paper. If you like, you can use the numbers-in-circles design (download in step 2), print and punch (3 color schemes on one sheet).

Alternatively, use stickers or number stamps, whatever you like.

Step 3: Punch Holes

Beneath the numbers, I used my crop-a-dile to punch small holes through the calendar. If you don’t have a crop-a-dile, you can use an eyelet tool or a hole punch out of daddy’s toolbox. Punch two extra holes in the upper left and right corner, so the calendar can be hung to the wall.

Step 4: Attach the Gifts

As you can see, I chose to stamp the numbers directly on the dots of this beautiful paper.
I chose 24 short stories, poems, recipes etc. and printed them on high quality paper. I folded and/or rolled the sheets, tied them to a pretty ribbon and threaded the ribbons through the calendars’ holes. A square knot on the back – that’s it. I used a small IKEA Allen wrench to push the ribbons through the holes. If you give the calendar to a couple, you can use two different ribbon colors for them to take turns in opening the gifts.

Step 5: Embellish

The calendar will look great, anyway, but you can add embellishments which appear underneath the gifts. Here I chose to attach a snowflake which I tinted with alcohol inks.

Step 6: Give It to Someone You Love!

Some ideas what to add as gifts:

Poems, recipes, jokes, seasonal short stories, vouchers, a list of "what I love about you", quotations, song lyrics, web links...

Please share your ideas!