#ChristmasTraditions#AdventCalendar#DIY

'Tis the season to be crafty fa la la la!! I love this time of the year as there is so much happening and there is a mad mad rush all around. The markets are flooded with ideas and so is the web. Everyone is making something or the other, food, gifts and so much more. My favourite bit is to go and drive around neighbourhoods looking at christmas lighting, amazing how much thought and effort some people put in every year and I for one want to encourage them more by visiting. Christmas at home and at school used to be quite different from what I have celebrated for the past seven years in Melbourne. At home mum had a christmas tree in a pot which out grew the pot every year, we would decorate the tree and light it up with the most gorgeous coloured lights. Mum would bake cakes and cookies, we would put out our stocking and mum would fill them up with chocolates. My fondest memory was dressing up as Santa for my little brother when he was four year old, he was asleep and I woke him up and mum said "look Santa is here" he said " Hello Santa" and slept with a big smile on his face. School was all about christmas crafts and carols, just beautiful to be in the chapel during these days.

My Christmas Crafts begin with the Advent calendar. I never had one growing up but I would like Elina to have this as a tradition. I made two, just because I enjoyed it so much! Here is the first one which is more of a discovery calendar for Elina as I have put little tokens for her in the pockets to take out every day until christmas.

I printed out some vintage numbers to stick on my calendar but you can use scrapbook cards or stickers as well. Here are the really simple steps to follow:

1. Cover a canvas or board with wrapping paper or fabric of your choice. I just used a wrapping paper and sticky tape to cover my canvas.

2. Cut your number print out in any shape or along the lines of the artwork.

3. Paste them on card paper in contrasting colours which will go well on your canvas background colour/pattern.

4. fold three sides of these number cards leaving the top side open, this will be the mouth of the pocket. Fold around 1 -1.5 cms on all three sides or bigger if you have enough paper.

5. cut the  two corners to create a notch as shown in the picture below.

6. make another fold on these three sides.  Use sticky tape to hold the bottom fold together with the sides to form the closed end of the pockets.

7. Move around the pockets or numbers to decide on the placement on your canvas.

8. Stick the pockets with sticky tape or glue on to your canvas and hang the calendar. You can fill the pockets with anything you like from christmas crackers to candies.

Pockets on Vintage inspired christmas calendar. You can make your own variations of this idea. Watch out for my next post with another easy idea for Advent calendar.