Advent Calendar Craft Tutorial

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Today is the first post in my new series, A Season of Serenity (Now) at Home. You can look forward to a whole month of creative tips and tricks to bring some Serenity to your Christmas holiday. Today, Kelli from Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM is going to show you how to make a simple and inexpensive Advent Calendar for your family. You could use some inspiration from Kelli's post to create something fun your own family will enjoy working on together!

Take it away, Kelli!

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Hi! My name is Kelli and most days you can find me blogging at Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!

I am a wife and stay at home mom of three boys. I love to be crafty, make yummy {and SUPER fun} food, share pictures of my cute boys, and blog about the every day happenings of my life as a SUPERMOM! I am SUPER excited to be sharing this fun Metal Tin Advent Calendar with all you Serenity Now readers! This is a craft I made a few years ago that is still a huge hit {and now a tradition} at my house! Thanks so much for letting me share it here today, Amanda!

I had been wanting a cute advent calendar for awhile. We used a cheap felt one from Walmart for a few years. It did the job okay, but it wasn't nearly as cute as I wanted it to be....so I decided to make my own Advent Calendar. I did a little research online, and I got a ton of inspiration from other blogs and from Etsy. I took a few of the ideas that I found and mixed them all up and came up with my own version of a Metal Tin Advent Calendar:

I hit up Hobby Lobby for:

• a canvas

• wedding favor tins {you need 24 in all}

• Christmas scrapbook paper

• a painted star

I already had some stuff at home:

• fabric

• rick rack

• Mod Podge

• hot glue

Instructions:

I started by cutting out a lot of circles with my circle cutter...48 to be exact.

24 circles with numbers for the front of the tins, and 24 unnumbered circles for the inside of the tins.

I applied a thin layer of mod podge to the inside of the tin and to the inside of the lid:

I placed the unnumbered circles {pattern side up} inside the tins and Mod Podged them in place.

I put the numbered circles in the lids {with the pattern of the paper and the number showing through the front of the plastic} and then Mod Podged them into place.

I cut out a Christmas tree from leftover green and white polka dot fabric and used spray adhesive to attach it to the canvas. I also added a trunk to the tree made from a scrap of brown corduroy fabric. I finished off the edges of the tree by attaching some white rick rack around the edges with my hot glue gun. I also added a wooden painted star to the top of the tree. 

After all the Mod Podge was dry, I put the lids on the tins and hot glued them to the Christmas tree. I chose to attach my numbered tins in a straight line, but you could mix it up and glue them in a random pattern if you wanted.

On the last day of November, we load up our advent calendar with small treats and hang it in our hallway. Starting on December 1st, my boys will get to remove the lid of one tin each day until Christmas {starting with number 25}.

To make our advent calendar even more fun, I also place small pieces of paper with special Christmas activites {bake cookies, sing Christmas songs, wrap presents, watch a Christmas cartoon, read the Christmas story} for us to do in some of the tins. 

Thanks so much for having me over today, Amanda!

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Thanks, Kelli, for sharing your project with us today. I love activities like this because it gives my kids something to look forward to each morning, and it keeps them occupied...rather than whining!

Stay tuned for more fun posts from myself and my fabulous guest posters! Tomorrow brings a Giveaway from Little Doodahs!

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