I finished my advent ornaments this weekend! It feels great to finish up. The kids have been so excited to hang a new ornament up each day, it's been really fun. I really like how the snowman turned out. The snowflakes are fun, but a bit flimsy. They don't hold their shape all that well when being placed in the pockets, those may end up being replaced. We'll see. I placed the candy cane in pocket number 24. We have a little book that tells a story of a candy maker that creates the candy cane to share the story of Jesus—"J is for Jesus, God's son sent to earth." "...it looks like the staff that the shepherds used. They were the first to hear the Good News." "I added the stripes to remember the day that Jesus washed all our sins away." It's a really cute book that we've enjoyed reading together over the last couple of years. On the 24th the kids will hang the candy cane ornament, we'll read the story together and talk about the reason why our family celebrates Christmas, and then finish it off with a real candy cane from our tree.
This advent calendar was such a great project, I'm really glad I decided to join in! Now that it's complete I really need to get moving on my Christmas present making! I'm feeling quite behind, but am excited about creating the things on my list.
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48 comments:
It looks fabulous!!
Awesome! I love all your ornaments! The snowman is really neat.
This is amazing. Love all of the detail and hard work that went into each ornament. This will be a decoration that the family will love to get out each year!
So beautiful!
Looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing.
It looks great! what sizes did you make all of them?
Also how did you get the smaller pieces of felt to stay in place while you were sewing them? Did you use any bonding materials or just pined the felt in place?
Beautiful! A treasure your family will love for years to come. Great job!
Your calendar turned out great. It was well worth the wait!
This is just beautiful. Years ago when I was at your age and stage (little kids, bun in the oven) it was the desire to have a lovely advent calendar that spurred me into craftiness. Yours is just the kind of thing I had in mind and I never did make one. You have inspired me all over again and you can bet my little granddaughter will have one to love next year.
Yay, you did it!
It's so gorgeous. Love the ornaments. Such a special thing for your family to share every year:)
This is amazing, I am so impressed! Nice work! :)
love it!!! That is the most beautiful advent I have ever seen. Thanks for answering my question about the felt. I definetly want to make an advent for next Christmas...although it might take me all year to complete it. ;)
Thank you so much everyone!
The Hoffers—My pockets were 2.5" square so I sketched all of my ornaments inside of a 2" square. I use fabric glue to glue down all of my pieces and then stitch them on my machine.
Angela—Thank you so much for sharing! I'm excited to have inspired you to make an advent calendar for your grand kids. I'd love to see the finished result!
I LOVE how your calender turned out! So cute! I knew you could do it. I just posted pictures of mine on my blog today. :)
justenoughstyle.blogspot.com
This is SO beautifull! I want to make one, so my girls can have their own christmas tree :) Love it :)
beautiful!!!
So beautiful and very inspiring!
WOWZA! I bought a ton of felt to make an advent calendar this year and I never got around to it because I just couldn't decide on what I wanted to do. Then I found your and I am in love love LOVE! I'm so copying you. I only hope my creation will be as gorgeous as yours. Thank you so much for sharing!
One of the favorite advents I've seen! Hope to get this one made in time to use this year! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Katie! I've been peeking in on your blog for awhile and fell in love with your advent calendar last year (it looks like EVERYONE did). Would you mind telling me how big the white felt back supporting piece is? ( I see in the comments that the pockets are 2.5").
Thanks for your inspiration!
Marit— Thank you so much for the comment and the compliments. This is one of the favorite things I've made and am excited to pull it out again this year. My backing fabric was 18" by about 29.5". I think I bought a yard of felt cut it in half (made sure the angles were square), and sewed those two pieces together. Hope that helps. If you end up making one I'd love to see how it turns out!
This is by far the cutest one I have seen anywhere! I am not a pro at sewing... but I would LOVE to have something this darling hanging in my home. Any tips for a novice? Do I dare attempt this?
Bodell— Hello! Thank you for the kind words. Felt is actually really easy to work with, even for a novice :). And you could just use permanent fabric glue and skip sewing all together. Then you'd just be cutting felt, gluing pieces together, and doing a bit of embroidery (which can stay very basic...I'm not the best at hand sewing myself). All you would have to do is sew on the buttons. I say go for it :). I would recommend using a wool felt blend rather than just craft felt. It has a it more thickness to it and looks and stays much nicer for much longer. I know the price goes up when wool enters the equation, but I definitely think it's worth it. Oh and Homemade By Jill (blog that hosted this sew along) has some free templates for ornaments to get you started. Hope that helps! Have fun!
I LOVE this!! My husband's great aunt made one like this for his family when they were little, we were the lucky ones that ended up with it! I want to make one for his sister's and brothers and while I do a lot with felt, the ornaments scare me! Did you use a template for those at all?
Lois
www.auntielolocrafts.blogspot.com
This is just lovely!!
I've featured this in my blog post - Top 10 Xmas Advent Calendars
www.serenityyou.blogspot.com
Natasha xx
Have you ever considered making these and selling them on Etsy?! I would definitely buy one! So great!
I've been looking for one like this! We had one growing up and my four brothers and I would run to get to it first each morning. If you would sell these on Etsy, I'd have to buy 5 for all of our families. The one we had was so over-loved, it finally became too tattered to keep. Let me know if you'd be willing to sell this creation. :)
Missy—Thank you so much for your interest. This calendar is not for sale. I made it for my children and as you did as a child they love it! I also have four kiddos :). I am planning on creating a PDF pattern of this calendar and possibly a limited number of handmade one for sale for next year. I know it's a year off, but that's the goal. Thanks again!
This is super cute! My 2 and 4 year old would love this. I'm definitely adding it to my "must make" list. Thanks for sharing! x Julie
hi there! this is amazing... exactly like the one i had growing up that my great grandmother made for my dad and his brother. i saw that you mentioned selling them this year- i can't find your email anywhere. do you have a tutorial for it/ patterns?
SO interested! SO lovely!
Soooo cute! I would love to know how to do this!
that's a really amazing idea!
i suppose it's too late to make one this year.
but i want to have such a decorative calender next year - for me and my family!!
I linked to your posting on my blog - thanks for sharing!
doro K.
Beautiful advent calendar! I'd love to give it a try. Thanks for sharing,
Gloria x
Wow your calendar is simply gorgeous, I love it !
Thanks for sharing this & Hi from Paris - France =)
This is amazing! I'm definitely pinning it to remember for when I have children :)
I love your tree and ornaments. I made one about 26 years ago and my kids to this day still talk about it. I use to wrap up the ornament with a little candy. I remember the 3 girls running to the calendar in anticipation of what the next ornament was and to have that small piece of candy :). In fact I would have to put on the next years calendar who got to go first. They all had their favorite ornaments. My 15 year old step daughter is still enjoying the advent calendar today :). Thanks for sharing your calendar with us. Merry Christmas
This is so cute! I am excited to make it this year!!! I bought all the materials and I am ready! Katie did you make your own templates for all the ornaments yourself? Also did you use an embroidery machine or just a regular home sewing? Thank you for the great inspiration!
Mom of two little boys—Thank you so much! The ornaments are of my own design. Though I'm releasing a pattern for the calendar on Oct 14th. I used a regular sewing machine for all the stitching and hand embroidery for the embellishments, instructions for my process will be included in the pattern. Have fun!
I'm looking forward to a PDF template. I started the sew along with Homemade by Jill in 2010 and didn't finish! I still have a few ornaments left and the backing. Maybe with a template I could actually get it done this year!
Your calendar is by far the cutest out there! Thank you for being crafty so the rest of us have inspiration. :)
-Mercedi
MiraclesCanOccur.blogspot.com
Will you be making this tree and ornaments for sale this year by any chance or know of anyone who is selling them? Before my MIL passed she gave the one similar to yours to my SIL and now that my husband and I have a baby, I'd LOVE to have one for him! Thanks so much! cori.wren@gmail.com
Absolutely beautiful! Love it!
Hello Katie, Came across your advent calendar on pinterest, Instantly fell inlove!
Wondered if you have completed the PDF? Very interested!
Hello! I do not have the PDF finished. My husband and I had to put that project on hold. We are hoping to be able to release it this summer. I'll post updates on the blog. Thank you so much for your interest!
Beautiful. Is there a tutorial for it? Thanks
Where do you find such great colors of felt?
Anna—I buy my felt (wool blend) at local shops in my area. If you live near Denver Fancy Tiger has a large selection of wool felt as well as walls of gorgeous fabric (http://fancytiger.com/fabric.html). I also buy my felt at a small wool shop in my home city of Loveland called The Wool Basket. Neither store offer shopping online unfortunately. I know there are a lot of online options for buying felt. I personally have never ordered felt online. Here is a blog post that I found all about shopping for felt online: http://www.trueup.net/2009/store-spotlight/felt-week-shopping-guide/
Hope that helps!
I love your advent calendar... so much so that it inspired the one I made for my son this year. If you care to see, there are pictures on my blog. Thanks for sharing this great idea! http://jasonandjen2004.blogspot.com/2012/12/advent-day-1-decorate-our-christmas-tree.html
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