Monday, November 15, 2010

Give Thanks- Fall Advent Calendar

Lorajean from Lorajean's Magazine

Hello everyone, this is Lorajean from Lorajean’s Magazine & I am so happy that Dee Dee has asked me to participate in the Give thanks Blog Event. What a treat!

With the economy the way it is these days, I am very thankful for affordable paper crafts. I don’t want to spend my money on crafts when I need to be saving it for the holidays. With that in mind I decided to make a Fall advent calendar from paper grocery bags. This is nice because not only is it recycled and therefore great for the environment, but it is also free. :) Keep reading because below I teach all of you how to make this!

Each box in the calendar holds a piece of candy, creating a fun way to countdown to Thanksgiving. Every year I like to confiscate the Halloween candy from my kids and slowly distribute it, this is a great way to do that. Bonus: Since Thanksgiving falls on the 25th this year, I can reuse this advent for Christmas!

To make this you need:

  1. 5 paper grocery bags
  2. number stamps
  3. white craft paint

Here are the steps:

  1. Cut 50 squares (6in x 6in) out of the 5 paper grocery bags
  2. Fold 25 lids and 25 bottoms. (Here is a video I made teaching how to fold larger boxes using wallpaper, the tiny boxes in this Fall advent are folded the exact same way but with smaller paper.)
  3. Stamp, stencil or hand paint the numbers
  4. Fill with leftover Halloween candy

I displayed my Fall advent in a nook that has 5 little shelves, how convenient, but you can display these any way you like. You could line them up on you mantle, stack them up like a pyramid, or even hot glue them to poster board and hang them up on the wall. Happy crafting and happy Thanksgiving!

14 comments:

  1. love this idea!!!!!!! fun2bkids.blogspot.com

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  2. This is such a darling project. Love it!

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  3. BRILLIANT! It makes me want to leave my reusable bags at home next time I get groceries just so I can make this...though i'm probably going to do it for Christmas. Still it's brilliant!

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  4. thanks again Dee Dee this was fun!

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  5. Nice job. I love how easy and free this is! Lorajean...you're wonderful!

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  6. this is so great, i love the idea

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  7. this is so great, i love the idea!

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  8. Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article

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  9. i saw this and loved it - I have posted a link to this post from my blog

    http://bettybakeblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/monday-shhhmunday-christmas-cheer.html

    thanks for sharing
    Betty Bake

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  10. Absolutely LOVE this...such a simple but creative idea! And there is no extra cost since you can use bags or even construction paper!! Thank you for sharing and glad I found your blog!!

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  11. Nice calendar and I love the fact that it can be made out of scrap materials :)

    I shared this calendar in my blog: http://whiterabbittreasures.blogspot.com/2012/11/diy-christmas-10-cutest-advent-calendars.html hope you don´t mind? :)

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  12. Can you reload the video tutorial for these boxes? It is not loading for some reason...

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