Countdown to Christmas!!

This another "rewind" post of sorts and it includes a couple of my all time DIY Christmas projects that I did last year. I wanted to highlight these now so you would have plenty of time to work on them if you are so inclined. :)

I'll show you a couple of my advent calendars and then show you some inspiration for advents. FUN! First up is my vinyl countdown. I had an Uppercase Living party just to get this sucker for free. (That's how I roll.) In the catalog it says to put it on a pizza pan, but I wanted something I could put anywhere in the house and a pizza pan didn't sound like it would work (more on that later!)

So, I got a round table top from Lowe's, painted it with magnetic paint, then put a coat of white over the top. After the paint was good and dry I put my vinyl on:

(You can click on most pictures to get to last year's posts.)

(Sorry for the poor quality, I'm using last year's pics!) I hot glued a fun ribbon around the edge:
Then got a little wooden tree from Hob Lob, painted it, and hot glued a magnet to the back for the countdown marker:
I love this one. It's fareeeking adorable, yes it is.

As I mentioned last year, it was a very good thing the Bub had no sense of time because I didn't finish up this next project till about 12 days before Christmas. He got day 12 a couple times, day 23 a few...you get the picture. ;)
I just took the cardboard boxes you can find at most craft stores and painted them -- half red, half green. Then I attached paper to the fronts, some fun stickers, brads and stuff. I went a little overboard with the stuff, but that's half the fun don'tchaknow...
This whole advent calendar cost less than $18, because I got the boxes on sale. If you've got older kids they could totally join in and make these with you!

I get little trinkets for the boxes from the dollar store, etc. Starting this year I'll also write down activities we can do together and put those inside. Maybe take a drive to look at Christmas lights, make cookies, watch a Christmas movie, things like that.

Of course after I did this, I saw Carrie's adorable version, that is to. die. for.:
I am considering hanging ours the same way, or even trying to get it into a Christmas tree shape. For now, I kind of like the idea of just one sitting out every morning for the Bub to open. Less temptation for him. ;)

Here are some other fun ideas I found looking around the net...

Speaking of pizza pan advents, this one turned out soooo adorable, I kinda wish I had seen this before I did our round one! Love the ribbon woven through!:

(Click pics to go to the source site.)

Something as simple as pails would be sahweeeet with some spray paint and numbers:

You could hang them anywhere!

I LURVE this idea!! Match books covered in fun paper with numbers attached:
This one would be only for written activities but I love that idea. (And how GORG to put them in an apothecary jar! Gleeee!) The site I found this on was from years ago and she got it from an old magazine, so sorry there is no source for this one.

I scanned this one from my Women's Day holiday mag -- same idea, but on a corkboard:
Oops! She did it again... Martha never fails to amaze me:

Little bubby socks! With little bitty bubby clothespins! Ack.

Here's a similar version, I think this person made the stockings herself. If you sew, this wouldn't take long at all!:

Here's another Martha version using old Christmas cards:

A cutie felt calendar with pockets:

(Which could be used for just about anything, depending on the colors you use.)

These are from an Etsy shop (click pic) but look easy enough to make on your own:

Ohhhh, I know! I know! What about doing them in red velvet or felt and adding a little bit of white fluffy trim around them to look like Santa sacks?? I'm dyin' here! Could that be any cuter??

By the way, that's a hint for an upcoming Christmas project I'll show you soon!

Have you seen any other great advent calendars out there? If so, share them in the comments!

The Before and After Party will be open and whooping it up till this weekend, so link in or visit the party! And I have a fantabulous molding project to show you later this week -- with my first video. Egads. That is, unless I find my senses and decide to nix that part. We'll see... ;)