It's time my yearly advent calendar is here! I like to use something each year that has defined my craft life that year, last year was the year of Iron on vinyl (Check out last year's calendar here!) but this year the tool that has really blown my mind is the perforation tool for my Cricut Maker. When it launched earlier in the year, my first thought was that I could finally make the advent calendars I dreamed of making! and here we are!
I also wanted to do something a little different for advent this year, chocolates are lush and don't get me wrong we'll no doubt have a few chocolate calendars on the go too. but I wanted to do something more special this year, and make a calendar of things to do, moments we can make and do together. some little treats for the festive season.
Lots of these won't cost us anything extra either, they just make magic out of things we could already be doing like making hot chocolate or having a board game night.
So behind each door is something to do! What's great about this is you can customise these to add in your own traditions or special things you enjoy!
You will need:
-Cricut Maker
-Perforation Tool
-Cricut Pens
-12x12 Glitter card in 6 colours
-12x12 Silver Mirror card
-12x12 white cardstock
-Glue
Step one:
Open up my advent calendar file in Cricut Design space : https://design.cricut.com/#/design/186463888
You will find three layers, the first layer has all of the numbers. Then second the sheet is the one that will be perforated to create the doors then the final sheet which has the surprises on to go behind the doors.
Here is what each door has behind it, feel free to edit them by double clicking on the one you want to edit in DS and typing in your own ideas:
1. Popcorn Movie Night
2. Make a donation basket
3. Make fancy Hot chocolates
4. Christmas Light tour ( print out my Christmas light bingo here too!)
5. Toast marshmallows
6.Watch Arthur Christmas (this is my absolute fave Christmas film, but switch in your fave instead!)
7. Visit a Christmas Tree Farm
8. Harry Potter Marathon
9. Cinema Trip
10 Bake Christmas Biscuits
11. Garden Centre trip
12. Make a den!
13. Let's go bowling!
14. Board game night
15. Make paper snowflakes
16. Go out for breakfast
17.Snowball with (with pom pom snowballs!)
18. Chocolate coin hunt
19. Baking Day
20. Pj and Pizza day
21. winter walk.
22. Let's do a puzzle
23. Go out for coffee
24. Party time!
Step two:
Once you are happy with your surprises head to make it.
Have ready your card, pens and perforation blade ready to load into the machine when it tells you to.
Load in the first sheet, and get started!
Step two:
once all of your pieces are cut, drawn and perforated, start assembling your advent calendar.
Take the plain glitter card you haven't cut into and lay that at the bottom, next stick the white cardstock complete with written surprises on top.
Next glue the mirror card down on top carefully lining up the words with the doors. Be careful not to perforate any of the doors yet!
Step three:
Next stick on your letters, use the layout in design space to remind you which doors they go on!
This makes your advent calendar complete, you can punch holes in the top corners and add a string to hang, or pop it onto your mantel piece ready for December 1st!
I'm off to pre-prepare all of the surprises, I have marshmallows to pick up and cute hot chocolate mugs to find!
Enjoy your festive season treats with you loved ones!
The Cricut machine is one of the best-selling powerful machines that has changed the way of crafting. You do not need to cut your design manually, saving both electricity and time. Once you have a Cricut machine, you can create any design and project you can imagine with its sharp blades and ability to work with a variety of materials. This Cricut machine is extremely easy to use; all you need to do is install Cricut Design Space from cricut.com/setup. After installing the software, connect your device to the Cricut machine and start crafting.