Amy at Living Locurto came up with this stinkin' cute as all get out FREE Advent Calender Template. I may or may not have double checked my supplies to see if I could easily make both the Star Wars themed calender and the Santa Claus one. Not so much, but I still got some great ideas from her (and made sure to download the PDF for future purposes.) Go visit her site, her work is AH-MAAAAAY-ZING!
Maya from Maya*Made has not one, but TWO AH-MAAAAAAY-ZING ideas! First up? Look up there, what do you see? Do you see toilet paper rolls? Oh, yes you do! 24 to be exact. And those snowflakes? She used a fancy snowflake punch and security envelopes. Get the fudge out, AMIRIGHT? I totally had all of these on hand. ((Looks at own homemade advent calender and wonders if it's too late to torch it. I hear rubber cement is SUPER flammable...)) And here's her other Advent idea:
Once again, she uses toilet paper rolls. To make tiny houses. Hanging from tree branches. IN A COFFEE CAN. I have all these things! Let's blame the stomach bug on my lack of creativity.
So my initial idea was to cut my industrial strength poster board in half to make Lo and Lillie their own (dude, it was something close to 10 ply... that other post board wouldn't even TELL ME how many ply it was... therefore this board was obviously far superior, right?). I then wrapped it with some pretty snowflake wrapping paper and proceeded to take #10 security envelopes, cut them in half and glued them down with a healthy helping of rubber cement. My Husband and I were STONED OUT OF OUR MINDS... unfortunately, I didn't even get the munchies. It still stinks in here 4 hours later. While the rubber cement was drying, I looked through the Halloween Candy and divvied out two pieces per envelope along with a strip of paper with an activity printed on it (as a matter of fact we DO stash it for creative purposes later without telling the kids... thank goodness they're still young enough to not care).
This is my "semi" final product. What you don't see is the literal STACK of Winter/Christmas themed stickers and fancy papers sitting next to the calender. And yes, I am aware that my weeks are only 5 days long. Saturdays are make and take days at Michael's and Sundays are Church/Family days with their Grandparents. Activities and insane amounts of sugar are already taken care of for those days.
And then we have the treasured Advent Calender of MY youth...
I really can't wait till the little mouse gets into the last few days... I love Christmas more than y'all can possibly imagine.
I feel shamed for purchasing the Lego Star Wars advent calendar for my son---but Yoda Santa? Come on!!!!! I crammed Barbie shoes and such into the tiny cubes of the other premade one I grabbed at Target a couple of years ago. Maybe next year I will MAKE one. I think you did super awesome considering the bug has been visiting you!
ReplyDeleteNext year I will have to steal your Barbie accessories idea!!! By then we should be in full on Barbie mode (she has ONE naked Brenda Barbie from when I was totally into 90210... and yes... that poor Barbies is THAT old, there's no WAY I'm that old!!!) And my Son would LOSE HIS MIND over Yoda Santa! I might need one for myself as well. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's odd. I love Christmas. I love when the spirit finally hits me (expected this year at precisely 11:30 p.m. as I'm wrapping gifts). This year has been rough financially, so I'm kind of dreading it, but still mesmerized by how easily that can change as it closes in. You've given me great ideas for calendars, though, so thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, lady! We're feeling it as well. Luckily for me, my Grandfather doesn't like to go shopping and I do, so because I put my effort into shopping FOR him I get to add my name to all his gifts. :) That makes me feel a little better about it. ((Plus I know then that the gifts WON'T be going back the day after Christmas ifyouknowwhatImean.))
ReplyDeleteI think your project looks, in your words, AH-MAAAAAY-ZING!
ReplyDeleteYou are one of those good Mommas who do FUN things with your kids. I always admired people like you: but I aren't one.
You are cracking me up!! Stopped by for the first time from Mama Kat's WW. Your kids are going to love that Advent Calendar! It's great!!! AND That whole security envelope snowflake idea??!! Say What?! That's some crazy creative thinkin'!
ReplyDeleteSusan, I wish I could say I do these things ALL the time! But I'm just as stressed out as the next Mama. :)
ReplyDeleteAdrienne, I wish I could take full credit for the security envelope snowflakes, but that is TOTALLY Maya*Made's baby. :) Thanks for stopping in and lovin on my blog!!!
You're so creative! Man, I love the stuff you can do with toilet paper rolls. I never even *think* of these things. I'm pretty sure my lack of creativity is why my birth control never failed. The powers that be looked down at me and said "Nope. That one wouldn't be a fun mom."
ReplyDeleteBWAHAHAHAHAHA, I'm sorry, but that is freaking funny. Because you're not creative? SHOOOT! Whatever! I didn't think up the toilet paper roll things, Maya*Made did. The best part about all of this is that we found an old wicker laundry basket FULL of empty toilet paper rolls from where my Grandmother was keeping them for God knows what and I donated them to the kids' preschool for THEIR arts and crafts. Now? I am saving them as if they were GOOOOOOOOLD!
ReplyDeleteI totally had the last calendar when I was a kid!! I think we still have it (if it didn't get lost in one of our million moves :( )
ReplyDeleteI LOVE advent calendars! When we were little we had like 5 so we had a lot of windows to open.
Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day! Just passing through!
Thanks for stopping in, CC! I appreciate gawkers sent from Mama Kat's. :) I love Advent Calenders too. I'm starting to think that's what we'll be making at Michael's today, the event's calender just says "Christmas Calender." If they make Advents, WE'LL be up to 5 ourselves. Guess there will be one for everyone! :)
ReplyDelete