DIY: Advent Calendar

Instagram'd a photo of my finished Advent Calendar that I was working on this year for my 3-year old son and I got a few people asking me how I made it and what I was going to put in these boxes. So I thought I would share. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it was A LOT of work. I plan on using this again next year because I'm not sure if I would have the time to make something like this again…

Just an FYI that all the supplies were purchased at the dollar store.

I bought a pack of card stock paper that came in 5 different shades. I thought it would
be a neat idea to do an ombré effect for the boxes. 

I found several box templates online and tested them out by printing it out on plain
paper. I settled with this template and redrew it on Adobe InDesign to match my
paper size.

I scored all the dotted lines with a bone folder and then cut out the rest of the outline
with my exact-o knife. I started getting a blister after doing 25 of these cutouts :-S
I applied double-sided tape on the backside of where it is labeled on the photo before
putting the box together.

Here's what the complete box looks like. It's pretty small.

I found these cute rhinestone and glitter numbers at the dollar store and I thought
it would be the perfect way to add the numbers on the boxes.

All the boxes complete! Now to stick them onto my foam core…

I laid out all the boxes on the foam core before gluing it on so that they looked
symmetrical.

Because these boxes were too small to store all the activities that I wanted to do with
my son I decided to make tags with the activities printed on it. Again, I went back
to my design software and typed up all the activities. I made sure to space them
according to the size of the tag punch that I had.

Close-up of some of the activities.

I printed it out on one of the card stock paper that I had leftover and punched it
with my tag punch.

I punched a small hole near the top to thread the ribbon through.

All the tags complete!

And here's the finished product.

Another view.

Here are the tags inside the boxes.

You may wonder why I made boxes if I was just going to stuff flat tags inside, but
it's because in some of the boxes I had little toys (like the dinosaurs above)
and even candies inside.

I can't wait to start this on December 1!

I propped up the Advent Calendar on my dining room credenza. Earlier today I went
out and bought the mini tree (called Cupressus 'Goldcrest')

Here's a close-up of one of the tags.

I propped up one of my favourite ornament on the top of the boxes.

It doesn't look like a dollar store project, does it? I don't think so.

And here's a look at some of the activities that my son and I will be enjoying in the
coming days. We will also be doing some baking. I'm so excited!