modern branch advent calendar (a DIY!)

In my family growing up, we had a felt calendar with numbered pockets, that had a little Santa toy that moved from pocket to pocket, counting down the days until Christmas.  I don't remember ever doing any Advent activities, but it was still fun to see the Santa get closer and closer to Christmas Eve!  I have always wanted to make an Advent calendar for our family, but wasn't sure how I wanted it to look.  There are so many great ones out there!  I gave myself until Noah was old enough to really enjoy Christmas.  This is the year!  

For our Advent calendar, I was inspired by Scandinavian design, and wood Christmas trees.  Such simple and clean style.  I chose to hang ornaments, with tags that have a different activity on it for each day up to Christmas.  I have had this idea for our calendar since LAST Christmas, and I am happy to finally see it made.  I thought I would share my process of how I made it... apologies for not that many 'how to' photos, (I was lazy) but hopefully you get the idea...

DIY MODERN BRANCH ADVENT CALENDAR:

SUPPLIES:

Drill, with drill bit (1/4", 3/8") long wood dowel (I used 1/2" circumference), small wood dowel (I used 1/2"), cut into "branches", smaller wood dowel (I used 3/8"), cut into "twigs", craft knife cutter, Elmers glue, wood filler, and sand paper.

HOW TO:

(I didn't take pictures of every step, just some snapshots of the process along the way...)

Before I did anything, I laid out all of the wood into a pleasing pattern... spacing each branch out, deciding how many twigs I wanted and where...  I then marked on the long wood dowel where I planned on drilling holes for the branches.  

1. Cut your "branches".  I used a crafters knife that I already had.  I used a 1/4 circumference sized dowel, cut into 4 and 3 inch sized branches (I cut 6 branches). Cut your "twigs".  I used  3/8" circumference sized dowel, cut into 1.5-2 inch twigs (I cut 8 twigs).   Once all the wood is cut, it's time to drill holes!  Before I drilled into the final pieces of wood I was using, I did drill in some extra wood, to make sure I knew how much to drill, and make sure it looked good.  Drill one or two angled holes into your branches, where your twigs will be.   I did a couple branches with two twigs, and the rest just had one twig.  Once you drill your holes in the branches, drill into the long branch dowel, where you had marked earlier.    

2.  Once the holes are drilled, sand the extra wood bits off, and use your Elmer's glue to glue the twigs into place, in the branches.  Hold the twig in place for a bit, to make sure the glue starts to dry (I left mine over night to make double sure it was dry).  Yes, I did use Elmer's glue!  It will surprise you how strong it is.  (I found that out during my architecture school days!)

3. Once the branches with the twigs are dry, use wood putty, and fill in the gaps where the twig meets the branch.  

4.  Once dry (follow packaging instructions), sand off access wood filler.  It will look like it is one full piece!

Repeat steps 2-4, while gluing the branches into the long branch dowel. 

5.  Time to start collecting ornaments and bobbles for your activities!  You can use as many as you want.  (See all of mine in the above photos.  I used a mix of ornaments from our collection, and handmade ones, mostly felt balls, yarn, and some small envelopes)

6.  Make a list of 24 activities to do as a family.  (I will post our list at a later date)

7.  Attach an activity or two to each ornament.  Hang all the ornaments onto your modern wooden branch!  To hang on the wall, I used clear jewelry wire, and hung it from some screws already in the wall.  (We are renting) But Jason and I both thought it would be cool to hang from the ceiling, slightly off the wall, so it looks like it is just floating there.)

8.  (Just showing the mess I made while making this!)

DONE!

CRAFTERS NOTE:

-In the process photos above, you may notice I was planning on using circles to mark the numbers for each Advent day/activity.  Once all the ornaments were up, I thought it looked too busy, so I took them off, and just wrote the activity number on each strip.

-I love how it turned out, but if I had to change something, I would make the overall big branch longer, so I wouldn't have to double up the activities so much on the ornaments.  I actually am not using 24 ornaments. (Again, so it wouldn't look too full)

-I think this would look great using a long birch wood stick/dowel (can find at Michaels!) or even natural branches you find outside.

Hope you enjoy, and happy crafting!