diy advent

so it came to pass that last saturday i was musing on advent calendars. specifically on the advent calendar that i knew i wanted to create for mae and soph this year and how i wanted it to look and the age old question that stumps me every year - how was i going to get the numbers on the pockets or bags or whatever i decided to sew to contain the goodies? except this year i actually had a solution other than stamping (although, ironically this year i actually have a number stamp set and a fabric ink pad) or embroidery (which would take me FOREVER) - i could screenprint them! and so a frantic design took place and files were rushed to my screen making dude and voila! a set of lovely numbers, printed in perfect christmas red on a naturally coloured linen/cotton blend. of course, it's not very cost effective for me to get a whole screen made just to create an advent calendar for my kids so i've printed up a couple and have them available right here in my esty shop to help you with your last minute, panic fueled (as mine is sure to be) advent calendar making : )







so the idea is that you trim around the dotted lines and then sew the circles onto the bags or pockets of your advent calendar but you could trim them in closer if you didn't want a border around the red. next year i hope to offer a complete kit for an advent calendar with these numbers, a pattern and the linen to make it but there just isn't time to pull it all together for old 2011. for this year, i've compiled a bunch of advent calendar inspiration on my holiday board on pinterest to help with design ideas, here are a couple of my favourites:

{a gorgeous one by lisa}

{love this great idea by christie}

{classic pocket style by the long thread}

 

{this was on a tumbler site with no link but i think it might be from a magazine..?}

all of these would work super well with my diy advent numbers, i think, even the last one with the clothes pegs. the trimmed out numbers could just be glued above each peg instead of stamping as shown here. i haven't quite decided what we're going to use yet. i'm leaning towards pocket style but we're going to be putting a hanging line across one wall in the playroom anyway for hanging the kids art on so it would be perfect for little advent bags... and i think we're going to steal this great idea i saw on pinterest and just do little cards with activities on them instead of small toys or candy. i'll post the list of activities i come up when i get them done, probably november 30th at 8pm....