How to Make an Advent Calendar or Countdown Calendar

If you want to know how to make an advent calendar, then this page is for you. Also known as Countdown Calendars, Advent Calendars are great craft projects for Christmas or the Holiday Season. With a little paper, cardstock, adhesives and ribbon and glitter, you're on your way to making a stunning home made item.

Photo Credits: June Campbell

This Advent Calendar lies flat on a table or hangs from the wall with ribbon. It's made with easy to locate supplies that you can find at any craft store, or at the Dollar Stores. You may even have most of the materials in your stash. Best yet, you can make this calendar for less than ten dollars.

Its easy to make this Advent Calendar when you follow the video tutorial at this link

Tim Holtz Inspired

This Ancestor Advent Calendar is Tim Holtz inspired. Each of the 25 envelopes is cut by hand and decorated with a portrait cut from Tim Holtz scrapbook paper. Each envelope is topped with a computer generated gold hinge, and contains a quote about art and a gold coin made from chocolate. I decorated the top with gold card stock that is dry embossed, plus three hand made Tim Holtz-inspired flowers. The roses are made from grunge paper and the rosette is made from the same scrapbook paper that I used in the Advent Calendar.

This calendar could be personalized by using actual pictures of your ancestors, and each pocket could contain a bit of writing about that individual. I think that would be a wonderful way to honor your family members and a wonderful gift for someone in your family.

A mini muffin tin, some magnetic dots from EK Success, patterned card stock and your imagination are all it takes to make this cute Advent Calendar.

It's so easy and fast to make, you'll want to make several sets of tops. Why not have Countdown Calendars for birthdays, graduations, Easter, the last day of school, retirement or for any other special occasion.

The video tutorial below shows you every step to follow.

This adorable countdown calendar is made with a kit from Karen Foster Designs. The little boxes or drawers are reversible so you can make an Advent Calendar on one side and another type of Countdown Calendar on the other.

When I made mine, I made a Christmas Advent Calendar on one side and a Birthday Countdown on the other.

Finding the kit may be the difficult part. They fly off the shelves in the craft shops. Amazon stocks them but even there they run out of stock quickly.

This Advent Calendar is designed for an adult. It is similar in design to the Heritage Calendar above.

The background is a dark, rich green card stock and the little envelopes are hand cut from gold paper using a template found online. The pictures are vintage scrapbook paper and the trim is burlap paper with a "rickrack" strip cut with a die and the Sizzix Big Shot.

Each envelope contains a small item suitable for a mixed media artist.

I decorated the top with die cut doves cut with the Cricut and added some green and burlap colored flowers. I used fiber in a burlap color to create a hanger so the calendar can be displayed on the wall if desired.