The 1st of December is just days away and I want to share with you a tutorial on creation of an advent calendar.

We will need:

• black and white pictures (or colored)
• paints and brushes
• scissors
• glue
• 31 matchboxes
• colored paper (scrapbooking paper)
• satin ribbons
• a stencil (with numbers)
• an awl
• Velcro tape
• cardboard
• fabric (colored paper)
• cork base (if you have one)
• thread (wool)
• drawing pins (nails)

So, first print various Christmas pictures with a size of 3-4 cm (I don't have a color printer, so I print black and white pictures). Decorate them with paints. Then take scissors and carefully cut.

I decorated some of the characters with rhinestones and stickers.

Take a matchbox, scrapbooking paper (you can take any colored paper), scissors and glue. Open a box and measured its size on paper (10.6 cm x 5 cm), cut out 31 pieces. Measure the retractable part of our box (1.1 cm x 3.4 cm) and cut 62 pieces.

Glue the large rectangle to the box. Also glue the small rectangles to the retractable part of the box.

Some parts of the matchbox are uneven and protrude from the paper, so I take a nail file and cut the excess. The edges become smooth.

That's what we've got!

Next, take satin ribbons and an awl. Make holes in the retractable part of the box and thread a ribbon, glue the ends. Do so with all the boxes.

Apply our pictures and distribute them to your taste.

Now proceed to the numbers. I found an old stencil (you can make it by hand or cut of paper). Transfer the numbers from 1 to 31 on the boxes.

Now it's time to glue our pictures. I take double-sided thick tape, the pictures will look bigger like this, and glue them to the boxes.

To strengthen our boxes, take Velcro tape and cut circles (squares) of it. You will have 62 pieces. 31 pieces (hooks) are glued to the boxes, the other 31 pieces (loops) will be later glued on cardboard.

For the base take cardboard (I have a piece with a size of 35 cm x 25 cm), choose the size by yourself, depending on how you are going to place the boxes. Glue fabric (paper) to the cardboard. Glue our Velcros (loops) at approximately regular interval.

The upper part is made in a shape of a fir tree. Cut out a Christmas tree of cardboard. I had a piece of cork base, I decided to use it for the Christmas tree, the nails will be better fixed like this. If you don't have a cork base, it is possible to do without it. Glue the cork base on cardboard and decorate our Christmas tree with woolen threads. Make the middle part of pom-poms.

Connect our Christmas tree with the bottom base. Attach our boxes. Take nails and put them in different places on the tree. Hang the boxes on the tree.

You can put a task, a candy or a mini-gift in each box for your child. The day has come, open the box, take a surprise and hang the box on the tree!