Advent Calendar DIY

Well I do love a project or two your know.
And any occasion can be milked to the max in project world.
Xmas in particular is perfect for maximising that crafty DIY potential. Yay!

Last year I had a board on Pinterest full of decorations, recipes, wrapping solutions and diy gifts waiting to be executed in my home. Sadly I left it all a bit too late & inbetween work craziness, weekend markets, sewing orders, shopping & my family being over, I ran out of time.
We did have great fun making some of the table accessories and my dad got totally stuck in to transforming the acorns we'd collected into shiny little gold nuggets - sweet.

The 1 thing I was disappointed that I didn't get around to though was making an advent calendar for Lula.

So this year I was determined to.

I really should have started it earlier in Nov to make 1 Dec deadline, but I had a shop bought choccie one as back-up. And I ended up being only 1 week late!

There are so many pretty ideas for homemade advent calendars, but this one from Morning Creativity caught my eye.

I had an overwhelming response from the office to the empty loo roll request & accumilated quite a collection in just a couple of days. So there was no excuse.

I darted in to a chinese shop to get some little trinkets & set to work:

Materials:
* glue
* 25 loo rolls
* tissue paper
* Cardboard
* Stuffing (or tissue paper) for chimney smoke
* 24 little gifts : here are some I chose from

- balloon
- shiny tedy keyring
- bubbles
- xmas bow
- mini slinky
- bouncy ball
- locket
- whoopee cushion
- stickers
- lip gloss
- butterfly rubber
- hair clips
- goggly eyes
- Hello Kitty patches
- Washi tape
- parachute man
- magic growing cactus
- xmas tree decoration
- beads
- plastic reindeer
- growing dinosaurs
- heart pendant
- ink stamp
- fun necklace

Squeeze a layer of glue around the top of a lo0 roll & place down on to tissue paper until dry.

Trim excess tissue paper, so each tube is sealed at one end

Staple the loo rolls together (in a tree or house shape)

Turn the joined loo rolls over & paint/write/stick your numbers on

Find 24 little pressies to hide inside each day

Then put glue on to the open ends of the loo rolls, place card on top & weigh it down until it's dried & all the pressies are sealed safely inside each tube

Add a roof, chimney & smoke & some ribbon to hang!

Ta da!

A little surprise every day

 

Merry Christmas!

xxx