Handmade Christmas Advent Calendar Tutorial

My advent calendar choice comes from my love of paper and collecting many different types of Christmas themed patterned paper. Take a peek at my finished calendar and enjoy my tutorial below.

Supplies:

• Patterned Scrapbook Paper
• Cricut (or cutting machine)
• Sure Cuts a Lot (or another software that will read files from your computer to your cutting machine)
• Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit from SVG Cuts
• Paper Cutter
• Glue
• Glitter and Embellishments

Instructions:

Step 1:  Using the Sure Cuts a Lot program, I imported the svg that I downloaded from SVG Cuts. This process is easy – I open my program, import the file and arrange it so that I can cut them out on my machine.

Step 2:  Insert paper into the machine and begin cutting your shapes out. All of the cuts come with instructions and color suggestions for cutting. I love how I was able to cut all of the same color on one sheet with no hassle.

Step 3: Assemble the shapes as indicated in the instructions with glue and/or adhesive squares. The doors are super easy to assemble. I have included a photo indicating how to assemble below. After assembled, attach all of the doors to the face of the project.

Step 4:  Next, take your square shapes and fold them together, gluing the ends. They are already perforated, making it very easy for you to put them together.

Step 5:  Glue the squares to the backside of the project as show below. Each cutout is numbered and goes with the coordinating door. This will create a box for you to insert goodies into from the front side of the calendar.

Step 6:  Glue on the sides of the box and the back. This calendar turns out to be about 3/4 of an inch thick in width. I used a glue with a very thin point for this project. It is actually a glue made for glitter projects.

Step 7:  Use glitter and other embellishments to dress up the front of the calendar. I also used a brown pen to distress the edges of the project giving it an aged look in areas. The photo below shows my glitter process. I use the glue with the thin applicator and place a line along the areas where I wanted glitter, then poured the glitter on and shook the excess off. Put the excess back into the container.

I love Glitter. You can never have too much glitter. 🙂

Now that your project is complete, you can diaplay it on a shelf to countdown to Christmas!

A closeup of the front.

Showing inside one of the boxes that you can put little trinkets in.

Now I would like to invite you to visit my friend’s Advent Calendar projects!

DIY Christmas Advent Calendar at Thrifty Ninja