DIY Advent Calendar

I love Advent calendars. Especially the ones I can make myself. This DIY advent calendar took me less than two hours to make!

I saw this advent calendar on Pinterest on Simply Surburban. I made it out of an old wooden bottle crate that I bought at a flea market. I have seen these crates in red, green yellow and raw wood. The crates cost about $25 but you can buy them at most flea markets as well as on Etsy and eBay. I bought a green one because I want to use it in our home throughout the year.

The first thing you need to do is measure the opening between the wooden slats. Try to find a box with a 2 1/2″ opening as the tins I used that are this size work really well.

Here is what you need:

• wooden crate
• three sheets of holiday themed scrapbook paper
• metal tins
• rubber stamps, #0 – 9
• ink stamp pad
• spray adhesive

I ordered the tins online from U-line. They are fairly inexpensive.

Make a pattern for the ends of the round tins and trace and cut out 24 circles. I used random amounts as I didn’t want anything to be symmetrical.

I laid out all 24 circles and came up with a pattern that I liked. 

Stamp the numbers 1 – 24 on the round cutouts of paper.

Next, you need to spray the back of each circle and then attach it to each lid. Spread out newspaper to protect everything and spray a small group of the circles with the adhesive. Be sure to replace the newspaper each time so that the cut circles don’t get sticky.

Attach to the tins by rubbing gently. 

Place each tin in the crate. Of course, you need to decide what you want to put in each tin!

I love how this DIY advent calendar looks great anywhere in my house.

Thanks to simplysuburbanwithrach.blogspot.com for the inspiration!

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