I have been seeing tons of advent calendars on pinterest and I decided to make my own matchbox calendar. Originally I wanted to have them on some kind of board or large cookie tray...but I realized I couldn't find something to work and so I was just going to have to adjust it to suit my home. Instead, I decided to make a double-garland type calendar punching holes in one side of the box that pulls out. At first, I was worried the boxes would just fall out because off the weight of the candy. But they seem to be holding alright. Check out more pics at the end of this post!
r on the back. It turned out I could use 6x6 squares easily. If the papers are doubled-sided, that means you can use on of each side from only one sheet! I'm a big fan of saving paper. I used the MME 12 Days of Christmas paper pad. It comes with 12 double-sided sheets. Meaning 24 different matchboxes! :) Use any adhesive you like.
Step two: Punch holes on one side of the pull-out box. I used the smaller punch hole from my cropadile. Use all your leftover scraps of ribbon and trim to make loops that you will use to hang the boxes. This is a great way to be thrifty and get rid of some pesky pieces you do no want to part with! If the piece is too short to tie, you can staple it or adhere it with tape, etc.
Step three: Decorate! This is the fun part. I mixed up my numbers with thickers and stickers. The only thing is some alphas do not come with numbers. :( But I had a big collection to choose from. Point to note: Line up your boxes in the order you would like so you don't have the matching colours next to one another when you go to string them up. I put a ton of snowflakes from the leftover paper pieces using my Martha Stewart snowflake punch. And I found bit and pieces that would look nice on my boxes. I was going for simple and cute.
Step four: Cut two pieces of string, twine, etc. the same length. Tie loop knots on each end and pin up. I wanted my boxes to be moveable and not have the loop stuck on the base line. So I used tiny clothespins (I knew there was a good use for these!) and mixed up the colours. If you are worried about the ribbons being too matchy, just switch out inner boxes.
Step five: Add the candy. My boxes were filled with chocolate santas, snowmen, milky caramels, chocolate-filled marshmallows, and ramune. If you have children, you can add little toys (like the kinds you buy for parties) or other things like hair ties, etc.
What do you use for your advent calendar? Let me know!
Be sure to check out my video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmK_PfUqad4
This is how many matches I had after it all!
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