Great Minds Think Alike!

I was in the process of writing this post when Adriane's latest post popped up, with wonderfully detailed instructions on how to make an adorable Christmas Advent Calendar... AH! She beat me to it! I honestly debated whether or not to post this because let's be honest- Adriane's advent calendar is awesome... and mine is sort of the slacker version of hers. But then I decided that I'm going to embrace my inner slacker, and that perhaps there are other slackers like me out there who want to make something cute and festive to help their family count down the days until Christmas but lack patience and creativity to do much. So here we go!

This year it was time to retire our old advent calendar- a darling mini-stocking garland that hung in our bay window- simply because it no longer matched anything in our home. I was on the look-out for something that was bright and cheery, and wouldn't take up a lot of space. After a bit of research I landed on this:

I'm kind of in love with it. The happy Christmas colors make me giddy every time I see it, and I love that it hangs on our fridge, high enough to be out of reach for little hands, yet central enough that I get to look at it all the time. Do you want to make one of your own? Get ready to be amazed at the simplicity of it all. 

Step 1- locate some magnets. I used some old refrigerator magnets that businesses hand out. I've been hoarding them for a while knowing that someday I'd find a great use for them! You can also buy sheets of magnets at the store just in case you're not a pack rat like me. 

Step 2- Find cute Christmas paper. I searched EVERYWHERE within a 30 mile radius for scrapbook paper that already had the numbers 1-25 written on it. The ONLY place I found it was at Michaels. Here's the only bummer though. You have to buy the whole book of scrapbook paper just to get the pages with the numbers. With a 40% off coupon it wasn't too pricey.  I also found single sheets online ... but shipping was $6. (WHAT?!) 

So the way I see it you have a couple options:

A) Pay for shipping. If you're nuts.

B) Buy the whole book of scrapbook paper and use the rest for other fun crafty things (because it truly was adorable paper!)

C) Buy the whole book of scrapbook paper, then realize that you don't ever use scrapbook paper... rip out the page you need, and then sell the rest to a friend who will actually use it. (This is what I did.) 

D) Just use cute Christmas paper and write your own numbers on it.

Step 3- Cut out the numbers and modge podge them onto the magnets. You may need to do some trimming to make them fit nicely. 

Step 4- Decorate each magnet with embellishments like snowflake stickers, sparkly diamonds, and ribbon. I used glue dots to attach these. 

Step 5- Type up things you'd like to do each day during the month of December and stick one on the back of each magnet using double sided tape. 

Step 6- Hang your advent calendar on your fridge, do a giddy little dance, and let the Christmas festivities begin! First up on our list was our traditional Chrsitmas Tree Waffles.

What kind of fun traditions do you have? For some great ideas on what to put on the back of your magnets, check out Adriane's post! She put together a pretty great list!

Let the countdown begin!