Don’t go for the same traditional Advent this year. It’s time to change up your Advent routine with this sparkly DIY Advent calendar that you hang on your tree. Even better, you can use it year after year and make it a fun new holiday tradition.

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Don’t forget to check out the kickoff post, 50+ Ideas to Jump Start Your Holidays, to see the schedule for all of the 12 Days of Holiday Ideas Blog Hop. Plus get inspired for your holiday season with DIY projects, recipes, and games while you’re there!

[bctt tweet=”Switch up your Advent tradition this year with a fun new twist! This sparkly DIY Advent calendar is super versatile and totally reusable.” username=”diyadulation”]

I am seriously excited about our Advent this year. It’s the first year that I’m trying something totally new and I know the whole family is going to love it! This year I’m surprising them with a new board game every day leading up to Christmas.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the gifts I needed a fun new way to surprise the family with it. That’s how this new Advent calendar came to be. I’m going to wrap all of the gifts and number them. Then I’m going to write the number on pieces of paper and slip them at random into the drawstring bags.

Then I hang the bags on the Christmas tree. Each day, during Advent, the kids will have to hunt for that day’s bag and find out what number is inside. Lastly, they’ll hunt for the corresponding numbered present under the tree. We’ll end the night playing the new game.

Sparkly DIY Advent Calendar Materials

• 4X6 inch Drawstring Muslin Bags
• Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge (You can also get the digital version here)
• Holographic Heat Transfer Vinyl
• Cricut Machine
• Iron or EasyPress
• Fabric Markers

Step 1

First, set up your Cricut machine with your Joys of the Season cartridge. Set your size dial to 4.5 and if using an older machine, set the pressure to high.

Tip:

• Typically you want to make sure the the “Flip” button is pressed (it will be lit up) when working with vinyl. For this project, it’s not mandatory because you aren’t cutting words but I still chose to use it.

Step 2

Next, place your vinyl shiny-side down on your cutting mat and load it into your machine.

Step 3

Choose an ornament design to cut out and cut it on you vinyl. Make sure you choose designs that have larger openings in them. You’ll use the space later to number your bags.

Step 4

Continue cutting out ornament designs until you 4 different ones on one piece of vinyl.

Step 5

Then weed your designs and cut each ornament apart.

Step 6

Continue cutting ornaments in different designs until you have 24 cut and weeded ornaments.

Step 7

Place one ornament on a drawstring muslin bag and cover with a piece of cotton cloth. I used a plain t-shirt but any scrap piece of cotton cloth will work.

Step 8

Then heat your cloth-covered design with an iron or your EasyPress. I set my EasyPress to 350 for this project.

Step 9

Set your drawstring bag with the vinyl design attached to it aside to cool.

Step 10

Repeat steps 7 through 9 for the rest of your bags.

Step 11

Once your designs have cooled, carefully remove the plastic covering from your designs.

Step 12

Lastly, number each of your bags 1-24 with your fabric markers.

This sparkly DIY Advent calendar is super versatile and totally reusable. You can fill the bags with small toys and treats, or steal my idea and fill them with the numbers of wrapped presents. The wrapped presents can be any theme you want from board games to books or movies. Bonus tip: save money by buying used items. A lot of the games I’m including this year came from Half Price Books for under $10 each.

Now it’s time to check out the other awesome Advent calendars from my friends below! Let me know which is your fave! And be sure to visit BurlapFabric on Facebook!

See where I’m linking up!

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