Homemade Advent Calendars {Day 8} The Whitaker's Window

Hello blog-land! This is my very first ever crafty guest post. *deep breath*. OK GO!

I am Leah from The Whitaker's Window, a small family- and craft-related blog. Thanks to Brandy for letting me share the advent calendar I made last year for my daughter. Since I generally can't remember what happened yesterday, much less last year, let's see if I can recall how I made this:

I first set out to find my jars. I believe I used these ones from Specialty Bottle. They don't hold a whole lot, they stick out far from the fridge, and if I could do it all again, I might buy wider, deeper boxes, unless I was doing paper-only inserts. But, having said that, everything I bought for the boxes this year fit inside these teeny things. Use your best judgement - Specialty Bottle has a lot of different sizes and options for you to choose from.

I decided my "theme" would be something I love a lot: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I LOVE MAX THE DOG! He is the reason I ever wanted a dog in the first place. :) I went to Michael's and found some Grinch stickers with a lot of Max the dog on them, and I also picked up some black number stickers, heavy-duty sticky-back magnets, and Modge-Podge while I was there. 

I decorated each tin lid individually with paper and the stickers, numbering them from 1-24. Then I Modge-Podged the lids, and attached a sticky magnet to the back of each tin. It's easy to arrange them however I wish on the fridge. Plus, it saves me some valuable decorating space on my mantel and shelves. :)

This year I looked on the Internet for fun ideas of things to put inside the tins. In case you are wondering, here is what is inside each one this year:

1.) Jingle Bell Necklace

2.) 50 cents

3.) Coupon to Paint

Side note about this one: In our house this means "paint with REAL paint"! Not watercolors or finger paint, but the messiest paint you can give a two-year-old. :)

4.) Penguin Socks (rolled up tight!)

5.) Winter temporary tattoos

6.) Coupon to go see Santa

7.) Dora stickers

8.) Gummy Bears

9.) Hello Kitty Bracelet

10.) Deflated balloon

11.) Coupon to watch a Christmas movie

12.) Owl Necklace

13.) Coupon to open 1 present

14.) Gummy Bears

15.) Coloring sheets (2, folded up!!)

16.) Wonder Pets Stickers

17.) Coupon for a sucker

18.) Gingerbread Bracelet

19.) Dress-Up Skirt

20.) Winter temporary tattoos

21.) Coupon for Christmas Books

22.) Christmas stickers

23.) Gummy Bears

24.) Invitation to Jesus' Birthday Party

Other ideas I found online were: pom-pom animals, quarter machine toys, and little cars/dolls. I think next year I may make more of the things rather than buy them, but this year was my first try.

So, that is my advent calendar! Thanks for checking it out. I hope you come say hi over at The Whitaker's Window soon. Have a Happy Holiday Season!

~Leah

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Thanks for stopping by Leah!

Here is another fun idea from Centsational Girl!