I can’t imagine a better place to spend Christmas than at home, with my family. This event is sure to be one of my favorites, as there are over one hundred amazing bloggers sharing just how they bring the holidays into their homes as well. Hosted by Hometalk.com and CountryLiving.com, two powerhouses in home decor, I hope you’ll be able to gain some inspiration for bringing the holidays into your home decor as well.
This project is one that I’ve been scheming up for over a year. Growing up, I loved advent calendars. One of my favorites was a wooden Christmas tree that had small holes and ornament hooks. Each day, we’d add one tiny wooden ornament to the tree. I remembering always being jealous of my sisters when it wasn’t my day to put up the ornament, and always hoping they’d leave my favorite ornaments.
Don’t get me wrong, there is value in sharing, and my girls do share the advent calendar duties on a family calendar, but I wanted to create a calendar that each of them could pick out their own ornament each day.
I love all things re-purposed, rescued, and reused, so this vintage printer’s tray (I found it at a garage sale for $5!) was the perfect frame for my advent calendar.
I used my Silhouette to cut out the rectangles with the numbers cut out of them with coordinating card stock designs. If you don’t have a cutting machine, you could cut the rectangles out, and use stickers or just hand write the numbers on the cards.
I found a lot of these little knick-knacks at the craft store – some in the Christmas section and others in the doll house area.
My girls love picking out a new little toy to put in the frame every day. The best part of this calendar? At the end of the season, I’ll be able to take out the cards, pack them up, and use the printer’s tray somewhere else in my home!
A few more DIY holiday crafts you might enjoy:
Birch Log Pillars with Song Lyrics
Glass Cup Candles
Scrap Wood Trees
17 Upcycled Holiday Crafts
Coffee Can Santa Vase
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Love this, Jenny and pinned it!
~Angie
Thanks, Angie!!
Jenny – this calendar – and your family memories- is just charming. Love your creativity and style.
Thank you so much, ladies. Advent calendars were one of my favorite Christmas decorations growing up, so I hope my girls like theirs, too!
This is such a cute project, Jenny! Love that you used a vintage printers tray for this advent calendar. I’ll need to look out for something like that the next time I go thrifting. 🙂
Yes, you definitely should! I’ve used mine more than I thought I would, now that I have it laying around.
Jenny, this is a beautiful Advent Calendar! I really like the different kinds of card stock you used and the little knick knacks are so cute. The vintage printers tray is gorgeous to use for this!
Thanks, Katrin! I made sure to pick out little stuff that I knew the girls would like, and they sure do!
This is such a cute idea Jenny! I love that each of your girls have their own side and what a great deal $5! I hope I find a painters tray some day! Thanks for sharing! I am pinning!
Cat
I know, Cat, there was no way I was going to pass that price up, even if I orinally wanted one that had much more random sized slots. Thanks for pinning!!
I LOVE this Jenny! Really very cool. I’m pinning for next year, I need to update my calendar! Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you like it, April! I’m hoping to start a printer’s tray advent calendar revolution – thanks for joining in! 😉
This is so cool! What a great repurpose!
SO creative!!! I can’t believe you got those trays for $5. That was the find of the century! And it’s so smart how you did that so you can use them elsewhere after the Christmas season. I’m sure these will be a special memory for your kids as they grow older!
This is a great idea! I just saw one of these at Goodwill but left it because I was not sure what I could do with it. I never though to use it like this. Love it!
I love advent calendars also. This is so practical and looks fab! And I love that each of the kids can add their own.
How unique! I love this idea!
Nice – I like your rustic advent calendar. What makes it so special besides the vintage printer tray is the papered backs. Pinned to share 🙂
This is great!! What an awesome project! I can relate to the memories of the advent calendar.
I love the idea of using a printer’s tray as an advent calendar Jenny! Such a smart project and it looks great!
Thanks so much, Tara!
What a great idea for an advent calendar! I love them and have three around my house every year, one for me, my son and my husband. I may try this for next year as I already have the printers drawer. I got a deal on mine too…$4!
This looks sooo great!!! What a fun idea! I was so excited to see the huge amount of link ups for this hop! There is so much eye candy!! 🙂
I love this project! I have some vintage letterpress blocks that I made into a name plate, so I love the letterpress trays you used for your advent calendar. I have a Cricut that I still need to learn how to use, so many ideas and great projects I could tackle. I better get it off the shelf 🙂
I found your blog through Fall into Fall Link party on DIY By Design blog. Come over and link up with us at Waste Not Wednesday and tell your blogger group too! We’re always looking for talented bloggers and projects to follow and feature 🙂 http://www.smallhomesoul.com/waste-not-wednesday-26/