Altered Advent Calendar with Jenny!

Advent calendars are all the rage now days! You can find TONS of ideas for them all over Pinterest and other crafty websites. A few years ago, I found a couple of tree shaped advent calendars from Starbucks that I altered for my boys, and that's what we use for our countdown for Christmas. They LOVE finding little goodies in the boxes each day as we anxiously await for Christmas. :) When I saw the Simple Stories "Handmade Holiday" part of the December kit, I immediately knew that an altered Advent calendar was what I was going to create! The Simple Stories collection made it SOOOO easy...the sticker sheet already had all of the numbers printed on the little banner stickers, so pretty much all I had to do was cover each little box with some patterned paper, add the sticker, and cover with Mod Podge. See....how's that for easy peasy? 1) First, I started out with this blank Advent calendar from Hobby Lobby. It was marked $12.99, but it was 1/2 off the week I bought it. Woohoo!

2) Next, I took out one of the little boxes and used it as a "template" to cut all of my patterned paper. Just trace the box's front onto a random assortment of patterned paper, then cut out all of the shapes. These will be used for the "background" of each little box included in the calendar. 3) After all my patterned paper was cut, I laid them all out on my table in the order I thought looked best. You could be very symmetrical here and repeat everything in a certain order, but all I did was just fiddle with the papers and arranged them in different ways until they looked good to me. :) 4) Next, I applied Mod Podge to each little box and covered them all with the patterned paper. 5) I waited for the Mod Podge to completely dry, and then I took each number banner sticker from the Simple Stories sticker sheet and applied them on top of the patterned paper in number order. I outlined each sticker with a black pen to help make them stand out a bit. 6) Next, I added a layer of Mod Podge over the stickers and patterned paper and allowed all of the boxes to completely dry before putting them back into the calendar base. 7) Last, I made a bow out of burlap and glued it on top. The end result:

Sooo soooo easy, I tell ya! Our Advent calendars are my kids' favorite tradition during the holidays! Inside, I place candy, small toys, strips of paper with Christmas activities written on them (such as "holiday movie night!" or "make hot chocolate and go look at Christmas lights!"), or some other little treasure. It's so fun to think up neat little things to put in each box, and I LOVE watching my kids' faces as they open up a little surprise each day! :) I hope you have fun making holiday memories with your family this season. Merry Christmas, everyone!

- Jenny