Geometric Advent Calendar 2012

Remember my Advent Calendar Round-up and my mission to create one this year? Well, I finally finished it yesterday, just in time for December 1st. It’s simple, minimal, with just enough festive sparkle. I had a blast making this, though next time I make these geometric shapes, I might have to try glue instead of double-sided tape because I had to keep reinforcing them with additional tape and you can still see gaps.

I initially clustered them all together, which looks fantastic. However, I realized that the strings would get tangled up so I tied them to a branch I found in our neighborhood park (I got lots of funny looks when I took the branch into a coffee shop when we stopped for hot cocoa after a romp around the playground). I cleaned the branch thoroughly and like it so much I will keep it up on the wall after the holidays!

Here it is on the branch.

I added little numbers for the day of the month on the teeny tiny circles, and what holiday craft would be complete without stripey baker’s twine? I downloaded the awesome geometric templates from Ruffled, reduced the size to 75% and used text-weight paper in gold, silver and textured white.

As a kid, I remember how fun it was to open up little windows of a cardboard box to get a little piece of chocolate every day, but with so many sweets that are inevitably part of the holiday season, I decided to go for a combination of chocolate, little non-edible treats and activities. The miniscule grey scrolls have written activities like “Trim tree”, “Paint nails with sparkly polish”, “Donate toys”, “Take a family walk to look at the neighborhood Christmas decorations”, and “Stay in pajamas all day and make hot chocolate with the works”. There are twelve in all. Fun.

I discovered that many of the little treats I got were too heavy for the geometric shapes, so I wrapped them up separately and inserted “Toy Basket” tags into the geometric shapes for days when she gets a toy.

Can you tell I got way into making this? LOVE. K is beside herself with excitement and can’t wait till Saturday to open her first one.

I will be back tomorrow afternoon with an outfit. The calendar took a good while to make and I’m a bit behind on my sewing…