How to Make a Wooden Advent Calendar With Pictures
Advent is the traditional countdown from December 1 until December 24 and it is often used to teach children the Christmas story. Families may also attach a gift such as candy or a small trinket to each day of the advent as a way of getting their children excited for Christmas. While there are disposable advent calenders available in stores, customized family advent calenders are very simple to make and will provide years of happy memories every Christmas season. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Printer
- Cardstock
- Scissors
- 3/8 inch plywood board
- Carpenter's pencil
- Jigsaw
- Drill with 1/8 inch bit
- Green poster paint
- Paint sponge
- Photo editing program or clipart program
- Printable transfer paper
- Craft plywood
- Popsicle stick
- 1/8 inch wood pegs
- Wood glue
Instructions
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1
Enlarge the tree template in the resource section of this article to twice its size. Print it onto some cardstock and cut out with scissors.
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2
Trace 2 copies of the template on the 3/8 inch plywood board with a carpenter's pencil and cut it out with a jigsaw. Take your time when you are cutting it out to properly round all the sides.
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3
Mark 24 holes, 12 on each front side of the tree, with the carpenter's pencil. Space them out as evenly as possible.
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4
Drill through the holes with a 1/8 inch drill bit.
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Paint the tree green with green poster paint and a paint sponge. Leave the tree to dry overnight.
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Create 24 images in your photo editing program while the tree is drying. You can use family pictures or images that contain a specific meaning with the advent calenders readings. Make the images as close as possible to a 1 1/2 inch square. Place a number 1-24 onto each image in the order that they apply.
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Print the images onto printable transfer paper and let them dry for at least 1 hour.
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8
Rub the images onto the craft plywood using the rubbing utensil included in the transfer paper kit. If the kit did not come with a rubbing utensil, a Popsicle stick will do.
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Cut out the images using scissors. The craft plywood will be sligtly thicker than paper, but should not splinter when cut with sharp scissors.
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10
Cut the 1/8 inch wood pegs to 1/2 inch pieces.
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Glue a wood peg onto the back of each image with wood glue and let them dry completely.
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12
Place the images onto the tree at random places with the final piece at the top.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit christmas tree image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
