DIY : Celebrate love & Compassion with an Advent Calendar

Christmas - the world says it is the time we celebrate the birth of Christ. But for me it is the time we celebrate life as such- not just Jesus - but everyone inspired by him or not. We did not have any traditions until now - but I am trying to begin some for my little girl -  She is just five - all she cares now is Santa bringing some goodies on the D-Day and baking a cake and singing happy birthday for Jesus. But it is not too early to learn some lessons on giving, loving our friends and neighbors and living a purposeful life, right!

I have always been attracted by the idea of Advent - something to look forward to make each day of this festive season special - each day having a purpose. It is a worthy tradition to begin with right! I loved our group discussions to find what we plan to do each day leading to Christmas. We made suggestions - argued on some and made a pact to do some giving too along with fun activities. Trust me it takes a while to get our little ones to agree up on anything.

On to the DIY part :-

While we were deciding on activities, I got some envelops, wood stickers and some foil transfer supply. Everything mentioned here came from Michaels - except for the decofoil transfer paper and adhesive - which the kind folks at Thermoweb sent over to try. If you can't find wood stickers,  just cut out the shapes using craft paper. Decofoil works with any of the porous material.

I started out by applying liquid foil adhesive using a brush. I recommend using a bristle brush so that brush strokes are reflected once you apply the foil. It gives a natural textured feel. 

The adhesive takes about an hour to dry and once fairly dry , cut out small strips of foil transfer paper and apply - metallic  side facing up. Rub the foil in for a few seconds and peel of the rest of the paper.

Now it is time to put the stickers on the envelope. If you are using paper cut outs use any generic glue to stick the foiled design on to the envelopes. Then write the dates on the envelop or use stamps as I have.

More detailed instructions with pictures are present in this post.

I filled each envelop with candy and activity for that day which is the most important part and put it up at an easily accessible place for her. Now we are waiting for tomorrow to come to start opening one by one. Yum!!!

 Do you have interesting Christmas traditions? Share and suggest some for my young family.