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I have been wanting to make one of these paper mâché advent calendars for a long time, but never get around to buying one before they are either sold out or it is too late to make a new advent calendar for that year. I had seen them in the past at Hobby Lobby, but I don't go there very often since there are other craft stores closer to me. Last month I was there picking up some stuff for another project and I saw them in their Christmas craft supplies, and I decided this year I was finally going to buy one so that I could make it, and I was going to get it done before December.
I love advent calendars and already have several, so I didn't actually need another one, but luckily my kids love them too, and I think they are a fun way to look forward to Christmas.
For this project I kept it really simple. I picked up a pad of Christmas paper at the same time that I bought the calendar and I cut it into squares and used Mod Podge to put it all together.
Once I got it all put together I filled the little boxes with candy to take pictures, even though we still have almost a month before we start opening them. My 5 year old was standing by me as I was filling it and he was ready to start opening them today. I think it will be a big hit once December comes around.
How to Make a Paper Mâché Advent Calendar
You will need:
- Paper Mâché Advent Calendar (This is the one I purchased, but it is out of stock online, other options are this paper mâché one on Amazon, or this wood version on Amazon)
- Christmas paper (This is the one I got from Hobby Lobby, or there are lots of great Christmas paper choices on Amazon)
- Scissors
- paper cutter
- Mod Podge
- foam paintbrush
- vinyl and vinyl cutter, number stickers, or number stamps
Instructions:
Start by taking out a drawer and tracing the outline of the square with semi-circle cutout. Cut it out and use this as a pattern to make your drawer fronts.
I chose 8 different papers and cut three drawer fronts from each. This gave me 24, for the last drawer I chose a Santa print paper and only cut one for that drawer. To cut out the shapes I traced the pattern on the back side of the paper I was cutting it from. Then I cut it out.
I placed the paper cutouts randomly on the drawers so that the prints were spread out.
Then I cut squares to put the numbers on. I cut a larger square in red or green, and a smaller square in white. Measure your drawers to see what size will fit on your drawers, but if you use the same calendar I did I cut them the following sizes:
25- 1" white squares
25- 1.25" red and green squares
There are a few options for the numbers:
1- My first thought was to stamp the numbers on each white paper, but the stamps I had were pretty small and I wasn't sure I wanted the numbers to be that tiny. I think it would be a cool look though, if you choose that route.
2- Another option would be to use number stickers. You would just need to make sure the were small enough to fit on the 1" white squares.
3- The option that I ended up going with was to cut the numbers out of vinyl using my Cricut. I just used a really basic font (I think it was Cricut Sans) and cut them out of black vinyl. I made sure that they were sized small enough to fit on the squares (about .75" tall), the biggest thing to watch with the numbers was that the 20's were not too wide to fit in the square.
Once you have you all of your pieces cut out, the drawer fronts, the colored squares, the white squares, and the numbers, you are ready to put it all together.
Add the numbers to the white squares, either stamp or stick the numbers on.
Cover the front of the drawer with Mod Podge, then place the paper cutout on the front.
Add more Mod Podge and place the red or green square on the front of the drawer, then add the white square with the number on top of that.
Cover everything with a coat of Mod Podge and let dry.
When the drawers are dry put them back in the holder and your advent calendar is ready to be filled!
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