Advent Calendar

Yesterday was the start of the Advent season, a time of preparing ourselves for Jesus' birth. And in honor of that I have many symbols in my house, like nativities under each tree, to remind us that Christmas time is not all about Santa and presents.

In honor of Advent, and something fun for the kids, I make this Advent calendar out of a mini-muffin pan. There are 24 spots to put little treats, notes, etc for the kids to discover each day of December. You've probably seen this before, it seems to be the latest "new" thing to make this holiday season. All of the ones I've seen have the calendar displayed vertically, but I thought it'd be neat to set it horizontally and set it in a plate rack. That way I can keep it displayed on my counter in the kitchen. After all, it is a baking pan!

(Click the image to see a close-up of each square)

Each square is a self-adhesive magnet that's decorated. After combing the office supply stores for magnet sheets and coming up empty handed I ended up buying mine at fridgedoor.com. You can find them here. Unlike a lot of companies these days, their shipping charges are very reasonable. Since the magnet sheets are self-adhesive, you just cut them into squares, decorate, and Voila! I will tell you though, don't do what I did and wait til Nov. 28th to start making this. Your head will nearly explode coming up with 24 different squares!! lol I have seen others where they made each square the same so that's a quicker option. I had to go for the more time intensive version :)

I didn't make these squares super fancy or embellished up cause my kids are going to be handling this. So I kept things pretty simple, just adding a little glitz with some Stickles & embossing.
Couple other things to note ~ Each square was cut to 2 3/8". I used the Zutter Round-it-all to round the corners (it's made to cut through thicker materials). A regular corner rounder might work since the magnet I used wasn't super thick. But I didn't try it since I had the Zutter tool.

Here's a general list of supplies I used. If you want to know any specifics, just leave a comment :)

Paper:
Ski Slope DS papers

Stamp sets:
Winter Post
Loads of Love
It's Snow Time
Deer Friends
So Many Scallops

Stamp Ink:
kiwi kiss
riding hood red
baja breeze
chocolate chip
black