X-MAS Advent Calendar DIY - Reusable and easy to make

December 1st, Christmas has officially begun! Yay!

I saw this tea wreath idea by kojo design and instantly loved it. Since there was room for 24 tea bags I thought how great it would be to make an advent calendar. In Germany Christmas is actually on the 24th so there are 24 doors in the advent calendar.

It is a very easy DIY project and if you give it away it is a reusable gift that can be enjoyed every year again!

All you need is this:

1. Designer Paper (One 12x12 and maybe some other coordinating paper scraps)
2. Cardboard (I used a diaper box)
3. Cloth pins
4. Glue
5. Ribbon for hanging
6. Stampin' Up! ink for distressing


1. First you have to use a plate or some other round object to trace the circle. I used an approximately 10 inch plate and a bowl for the inner circle. You have to make sure, that the wreath is wide enough for the cloth pins as you don't want them to stick out from the sides.

2. Trace the circles on your designer paper and then add some little tabs about 1 1/2 inch from the edge of the traced circle. I am sure you can find a different way to do this but this was how I did.

3. Next, cover the clothes pins in the designer paper or card stock you have selected.

I used regular glue instead of hot glue like in the other tutorials. I found that the hot glue made some lumps and just didn't look good.

 I spread it out evenly on the clothes pin.

4. Glue the card board circle to the designer paper.

5. Put dabs of glue on the notches and glue them down.

6. Depending on what kind of a look you are going for you can distress the wreath edges as well as  clothes pins with ink and a sponge.

 7. Space the clothes pins evenly and glue them to the wreath.

8. Attach a ribbon (I glued it to the back of the wreath).

Have a wonderful Advent!

Karoline

Book Page Wreath - I had to try it

I am a huge fan of all the book page wreaths on the internet. I like that fact, that everybody has their own technique and every single wreath is unique. I like the vintage feel and the fact that it is a conversation starter. We had some friends over and they mentioned it hanging on the wall."How cool is that" I said I made it myself. They were impressed.

Here are the instructions and the technique I used:


1. You need: Book I got for free
Some metallic ink (gold and bronze)
Hot glue gun
Styrofoam ring 
Scissors (optional but for cutting string hanger)
String or ribbon for hanging
Time: It took me about 6 hours to complete the wreath    


                  

2. Styrofoam ring. Mine is 12 inches I think. I got it for $6 at Michael's with a coupon. In some tutorial they tell you to paint the styrofoam a gray or brown. After I did this project. I would recommend it because should there be any holes in the wreath (you will see what I mean below) you would probably get away with some of them as they would not be very visible. The white styrofoam reflects light well so you can see every hole. 

3. I used the ink on all three sides of the book so that I have some color variations in the book page wreath.

NOW THE FUN PART

 

4. Now you rip all pages out of the book.

 5. Then you fold and fold and fold and fold. I took the page lengthwise and folded it about 5 times like a harmonica. Then I went over the ends with the gold and bronze ink again.

  6. I started with the back of the wreath and overlapped the pieces. Lining up with the back opening.     On the outside the book pages stuck out a little bit. It was a lot of work because I had to glue the "harmonica" together otherwise it would have opened.

7. Then you just start gluing the harmonica down with hot glue. You can either fold the harmonica in half and glue it down (will give you shorter ends) or you can fold them at the end and glue them down.

 

8. So you just work your way around. Pull the harmonica apart to make the wreath look fuller.

9. Once you have covered almost the entire styrofoam turn it around (back side up) and glue the end  pieces right next to each other.

10. Go around and around until the wreath is very finished.

11. Then I ripped two pager into little pieces and glued them around the seam in the back with hot glue.

12. After the wreath is finished you have to look for holes. You can either try to move the harmonica  (open it wider or close it) to cover the hole or you can glue in some pieces in like I did in these photos.

13. You an attach a hanger to the back with hot glue or just hang in on a nail in the wall as is. Since it is styrofoam there are no issues with punching a hole into the wreath.

ENJOY!

Karoline