Craft tutorials and free templates

Advent calendar

Yay! I finally managed to get an advent calendar tutorial up. I do hope you like it. I tried to come up with one that uses simple materials, is easy to make, is suitable for adults and kids, and one that can be customised to suit your own colour scheme.

If you wanna have a go you will find full instructions after the jump…

Advent calendar

These models are pretty versatile; you can hang them in your tree, make a garland from them or you can stand them on your windowsill.

Advent calendar

*I can’t believe how quickly the months are flying by. Where is the pause button!*

Advent calendar

Advent calendar

Advent calendar

Advent calendar

Click on the link below to view the how-to!

Advent calendar

Advent calendar

YOU WILL NEED:
– – – – – – – –
12 sheets of card (up to 120gsm)
Scissors
Ruler and needle (for scoring)
Cotton

LENGTH OF PROJECT
– – – – – – – – – –
3-4 hours (excludes printing time)

HOW TO
– – – – – –
Print the templates onto your sheets of card. I set my printing preferences to ‘black & white’ and ‘text & image’. (Templates are highlighted in yellow at the end of this post)

1. Cut out your templates, then score and fold along all the lines. Using a needle, pierce a hole in the corner of each template (the holes are marked on the print outs).

2. Turn your model over, place a trinket or sweet inside, and then fold each of the four flaps inwards.

3. Cut a 30cm length of cotton. Thread your cotton onto a needle and thread through the first hole from outside to inside.

4. Thread the cotton through the second hole from inside to outside.

5. Thread the cotton through the third hole from outside to inside.

6. Finally thread the cotton through the fourth hole from inside to outside.

7. Gently pull the ends of cotton together so that the model closes

8. Place a small roll of tape over the model (this will help keep the model closed whilst you tie a double knot in the cotton).

9. Snip the ends of cotton so that your loop is approximately 8cm long and tie a knot in the other end!

10. Repeat 23 times!!!

Job done ^_^

TEMPLATES
– – – – – –

advent 1 & 12
advent 2 & 13
advent 3 & 14
advent 4 & 15
advent 5 & 16
advent 6 & 17
advent 7 & 18
advent 8 & 19
advent 9 & 20
advent 10 & 21
advent 11 & 22
advent 12 & 23
advent 13 & 24

And if you fancy designing your own, or want to use your own patterned paper then you can use the blank template below:

blank template

If you have any problems then please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

36 thoughts on “Advent calendar

  1. I love this… the first truly contemporary advent calendar I’ve seen! Thanks for the blank template too – I’m already imagining using it to make little Christmas tea gifts or wedding favour boxes. I’m having a mini-eco week this week; I’ve been making gorgeous Christmas crackers using your templates which I’ll be blogging about next week; I couldn’t believe how easy they are to use, and how pretty…

  2. Vous êtes merveilleuse! Merci beaucoup! c’est vrai que le temps passe vite même trop vite!!

  3. These are fab gorgeous Kate. I have some messages to put inside them all ready to go too. I love the idea of hanging them on the Christmas tree. I reckon I will be getting on with these over the next couple of days. x

  4. this project is georgeous ! if you don’t mind i’ll share it on my blog and i’ll try to to this at home for our advent calendar. Thanks a lots for the templates !

  5. Thanks you. I was going to print out some cheesy santa jokes to pop in mine! Hope all well with you x

  6. This is so beautifully simple, and so much nicer for the kids than a boring store bought advent calendar! Thank you so much for the lovely tutorials!

  7. Have been looking for a fun Advent calender for my little guy and this is ABSOLUTELY perfect. Found this on another Facebook page and have also shared the love!

    🙂 Hazel

  8. Thank you so much for making and then saring these! I have already printed up on 25 different christmas paper designs, and started cutting and folding a few and had to stop to tell you how adorable they are! I am going to try and put brads in the top to make them re-useable with less chance of the little one wripping as she unties the yard I will be using. This year we are inserting a miniature ornament and she will get to add one to her very own tiny tree every day! These are AWESOME! Thanks so much!
    Hilary

  9. Thank you!
    My boys and I have just finished this project, and it looks great! And it was a good way to entertain them on a rainy day. Now, they’re eager to know what treats I will be filling the pyramids with…

  10. Hi, I really love everything that you make and I can’t stop printing and folding 🙂 but I was wondering, I would like to print these on black paper! I thought it would be easy, but its not… Do you have any ideas? Printers doesn’t really print white and I’ve tried to change the color on your templates but no luck there unfortunately. Is there any way you can make them off whit or something? I would really appreciate som help 🙂 thanks a million

  11. Hi Fanny…I presume you are just trying to print the plain template? There is no use me making a lighter template because normal inkjet printers won’t print designs that are lighter than the paper itself…hope that makes sense.

    You could print the template onto white card…cut that out, then put it on top of some black paper and draw around it. Pencil usually shows up pretty well on black paper. The template isn’t that complicated so it shouldn’t take too much time.

  12. Thank you for replying so quickly 🙂 no I am trying to print the templates with numbers and patterns which makes it a bit more complicated, but I understand what you mean. The only way I have come up with is to change your template in a program to a negative, so what was black became white and the other way around, and then print it on a white paper and the printer prints the “background” black but then it uses a lot of ink so I was hoping for a different solution. Thanks for your help.
    I have one more “quick” question/request, for my Christmas tree I would love a five pointed star in 3d similar method to all your things, just thought I ask 🙂 thanks again I really love your website

  13. I made this advent calendar for my children and hang them on the wall as a wave. They love it! I closed three sides of it and I left one openable, so I put christmas decorations inside or lollies or a message. they look forward to open one piramide per day…and sometimes two..cheeky souls…Thank you so much for the templates. It gave me a few hours of fun when making them and a great enjoyment to look at them for a whole month!

  14. Can you right click on the link and press ‘save as’? I just tried the links and they work for me.

    Kate ^_^

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