Consciously creating a beautiful life.





Friday 25 November 2011

DIY Advent Calendar

Today I am guest-posting at Gluesticks, showing this advent calendar tutorial.


My daughter loves to go on treasure hunts, so this year I decided to put only the clues into the calendar, and hide the actual presents somewhere else. This is quite handy as it is very hot here this time of the year, and all chocolate would melt if left outside the fridge for long.

Crafts supplies are quite limited in Namibia and I normally don’t find what I have been looking for and have to improvise.


This is what I used for the calendar:


My trusted Russian-German dictionary (it is getting quite thin after I plastered several walls with its pages), small wooden pegs, brown envelopes used to pay out money to workers, little wooden numbers, glue, string, and some water colors


 
First I cut little hearts out of the pages of the dictionary


 
I started off by putting a pin into the little numbers to have something to hold onto when using them as stamps, but gave that up quickly and just used my fingers


 
I painted the little numbers red and stamped them onto the hearts


 
They didn’t have a ‘2’ at the crafts shop, so I made that one out of cardboard



After stamping the number on, I glued the heart to the envelope and closed it with 
a little peg



Using string and my daughter’s  ‘Hello Kitty’ tape I put the calendar up in tree form and made a star on top out of the tape



And here is the finished product, not containing any clues just yet :-)



And seeing that I finally managed to paint the rest of the wall black, here is what it looks like now.

Wishing you a lovely Friday!

11 comments:

  1. What a great idea.
    Jamie
    http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is so cute! I would never have even thought of doing something like this-you are obviously very creative!

    I am hosting an Advent calendar link up as part of my 12 Days of Christmas series at my Christmas blog. I would be honoured if you could stop by and link up this wonderful idea/post!

    Best Christmas wishes,
    Natasha.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great job. I love the idea of paper-recycling. Wish you a wonderful christmas time.
    I would be honoured if you stob by at my blog:
    http://motherskitchenblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/simple-christmas-sparsame-weihnachten.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is so pretty - I love vintage style romantic things and this advent tree fits the bill! :)

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  5. This is beautiful!

    www.thezkids.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is perfect so very cute and wonderful creation. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing. I will follow on my way out so I remember the path to your blog. I hope you will visit my place soon and do the same. Cheers SpecialK XoXo p.s. I love the little saying about ringing the bell on your side bar I would like to that soon if I may. Ta

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a beautiful design! Thanks for linking up with my Monday Craft Party. It was lovely to see you back.

    Rosie xx

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  8. Thanks so much all you lovely women!! Am off to visit your blogs :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. How sweet and simple this is! I love the look you created using the vintage book and receipts. Very creative!
    I'm your newest follower! Stop on by sometime! If have a weekly linky party called Terrific Under Ten Tuesdays. It's for projects made fr $10 or less. I would love to have you sometime!

    ReplyDelete

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