Counting Down Christmas--An Advent Calendar

***UPDATE, I have just posted my advent inserts, here!***

I had been wanting to make an advent calendar of some kind, for a long time. I was hoping to do something in the shape of a Christmas tree because that is what we had growing up, but I was hoping for a version that called for less (or no) sewing. So here is what I came up with last year, after borrowing ideas from Becky P.'s blog, who borrowed ideas from Ali Edward's blog, who borrowed ideas from Martha Stewart's kids magazine. ;-) Aren't blogs great!

Like Becky, I wanted my calendar to be portable. So I put on canvas. I had my husband help me with the engineering part, which means it's probably overkill, but those boxes aren't falling off! We bought a piece of MDF (is that what it is called?)--the thin, dense, wooden board--and cut it to fit inside the frame of the back side of the canvas. Then we screwed the boxes through the board to hold it all in place, with short screws. When you open the boxes, you can see the screws, so I plan to cut circles from scrapbook paper to line the back of each box. If I were doing this this year, given my current obsession with mod podge, I would probably cover the front of at least some of the boxes with festive scrapbook paper, as well, before adding the number stickers. I plan to put scriptures inside each box and some treats on random days as well. I started making papers to go inside last year, but I got hung up making them too pretty so they didn't make it in the boxes. I am using these scriptures and suggestions. I used 3 different shades of green paint, and 2 of red, and tried to make sure there was more green so that it looked like a tree with red ornaments. I used brown on the boxes to make a trunk and yellow on the star-shaped box.

I got my canvas and boxes all at Michaels. If you wanted to make these as a group, there are places on-line where you can order the little paper mache boxes in bulk, for less. I made my calendar go to 25, but if you chose to do 24 days, just remove one of the square boxes at the bottom, and adjust the numbering.

The random sized numbers are kind of fun, and cost effective, because I was able to use what ever I had left over in my scrapbooking stickers.

If any of you are inspired by this post to make an advent calendar, I'd love to see your pictures!

p.s. I just found a bunch more holiday inspiration here.