Thursday, April 12, 2012

Lets talk about Christmas!

'Is she crazy?' I hear you say?? Quite possibly.

But in my defense, I am talking about Advent calendars. These things take time, thought, preparation. After all, it is April..soon it will be July.....then in a bit it will be October....then Christmas! 

So if your wanting to have an awesome Advent Calendar, now is probably a good time to start! My friend Dana from Tootypegs came to me recently looking for small things to fill her daughters calendar which reminded me of the sticky note stuck on my computer that reads 'blog advent calendar!'

So lets begin! 

As always the Internet is the greatest source of inspiration and ideas, so I have been entertaining myself at 2am while my body thinks it doesn't need any sleep, looking for ideas to share with you!

So, there's a few ways you can go. Firstly you can make your own, now those of you that have craft-fobia, please don't freak out! I will show you some pictures of super simple to not quite so simple and some links to tutorials. 
Or of course you can buy one and fill it, there's a lovely wooden one brought out by kaisercraft that I saw in spotlight recently, ready for you to paint and/or decorate how ever you fancy. I am sure there are plenty more out there, but if your wanting something hand made, I plan on making some bunting style calendars that I think would just look spectacular hanging in a house in the lead up to Christmas (also good if you have a few children to hide treats for!), also I have had this idea that kept me awake even longer, a very special JaxFancy Advent box. 
Imagine each day peeking in the advent box, looking for the right number package, opening the beautifully wrapped bundle, over the whole month you would unwrap a new piece of a JaxFancy playscape...perhaps a farmer one day, a duck next, then a cow? who knows! Ah! that would be so much fun! Golly, I am very excited about that one....but anyway lets look at some other ideas to inspire you.
Simply peg cute baby socks on a ribbon and fill! 

These are toilet paper rolls squished and glued on one end, paint them and add numbers and hang! 

Simply colored envelopes strung up with pegs
Getting a little fancier now, a shadow box filled with brightly colored packages.
Simple Bunting
A paper chain tree, write an activity or treasure hiding place in each loop taking one off each day. 

Small gift boxes glued to a frame, you can adhere the boxes straight onto the wall too for a striking decoration!

Now, this one really tickles my fancy! Paper stars hung from a pine branch



If you still need some more Christmassy goodness how about a few links to tutorials??






Scroll down a little to see the tree etc









Well I think that should give us something to think about! So remember when your deciding what type of calender you would like to keep in mind the type of things you want to have in your calendar.

So what to put IN the calendar? Chocolates, activity notes, tree ornaments....
I will think about it at 2 am when I can't sleep.... and now have a new note on my computer....blog advent calendar fillings!


Have you made your own calendar before? Leave us a comment and share your ideas! 

Jacq 

:)






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