Advent Calendar Tutorial

I finally made an advent calendar. I wanted to make one that involves Bubba, like a paper chain or something of the sort, but since he is too young I decided to get artsy and make one of my own that I can reuse each year. I probably looked at over 50 different styles of advent calendars before I chose to make the one that I did. I already had all of the necessary supplies on hand, so I didn't have to buy anything to make it. That's always a good feeling!

I grabbed an old cookie sheet from under my oven and cleaned it off real well. Then I painted the back side of it white with a foam paint brush.

Then I covered it with festive cardstock and drew a 5x5 grid in the middle.

I had a bunch of really cute gift tags that I numbered 1-25 and used for the countdown. I stuck a thin magnet on the back of each one so they are easy to remove and replace. 

Then, I tied hemp rope to the gift tags to spruce them up a bit. 

Once that was finished, I wrote "How many days until Christmas?" on it, like the following pictures show, and I added some buttons and a ribbon for accent.

Overall, it was a very simple project. I'm so glad that I finally got around to making it. Even if I do only get to enjoy it for 12 more days...(11 now since it is already 1AM).

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the magnets are awesome because whenever you take a number off of the calendar, you can simply stick it to the inside of the pan. So convenient!

Places I'm linking up: The Girl Creative
                                    Craft-O-Maniac
                                    Brambleberry Cottage