Santa's Beard Advent Calendar

Mom was in town for the last 12 days, and even though it was for Uncle Bob's funeral service we still found time to become addicted to Pinterest. I think that took all of 12 minutes! LOL
We are "pinning" things to our boards like crazy, all the while mumbling about how we're never going to actually get any of these cute crafts or recipes done. But I'm proud to say that I just accomplished my first Pinteresting craft idea!

I had been looking at and pinning homemade advent calendars. I really don't like the idea of the chocolate-filled calendars.... okay, maybe I do. But clearly that's the problem. If my sister & I were able to eat through Christmas on December 1st, then I'm pretty sure my 5 year old could (WILL)do it now too. So I wanted something different. I saw lots of beautiful calendars, with goody bags, ornaments, etc., but I was grumbling about the cost of 25 new ornaments, and the time to shop for and fill 25 goody bags.
THEN.... I saw a pin for an advent calendar that was something both my daughter and her BFF could make, with just stuff already in my scrapbook room!
The Santa's Beard Advent Calendar was posted on the Inviting Printables Blog.
I printed out the cute page of Santa's face with numbers of the days, where his beard will be and a poem at the bottom.

I guess my nickname really fits me, cause I can't seem to stop tinkering with stuff. In this case I could see an opportunity for the girls to cut out all the pieces of Santa and glue them on a piece of card stock themselves. Then I stamped the numbers and printed the poem, which I did in Lettering Delights Oz font and changed the wording slightly. Bryan, who is sometimes hit with a totally genius idea, suggested I mat the poem so that it looks like it's a belt buckle. So, that's exactly what I did!

The girls will start tomorrow, gluing on one cotton ball every day of December, covering up the day's number. They are so excited about it and I loved making it with them. It was literally a 20 minute project with just a few basic scrapbook tools and some card stock. :)

*Tink

Let the countdown begin!!



UPDATED December 30th 2011:
As the days of December were ticking by I realized that the poem and the numbers stamped on the calendar aren't really in sync. The last day stamped should be the 24th, as that's the night Santa actually makes his delivery. OR, the poem can be altered slightly to avoid saying that on the last day of the calendar (the 25th) Santa comes. If we repeat this craft next year, I think I'd like to leave the poem intact and only stamp numbers thru the 24th.
As for this year, this was the best advent calendar we've ever done. Sure, Sophie was all over the chocolate one she got too (except... unlike her Mama or her big brother, she was good about only eating one a day), but every morning her first thoughts were to glue on a cotton ball.
I have a set of Christmas coffee mugs that I display around the house, but we never actually use. Sophie chose the Mrs. Claus mug to hold the cotton balls and a glue stick all together, on the counter next to the refrigerator, where Santa was hanging. She really enjoyed this method of counting down and I compared her enthusiasm for and reactions to both this and the chocolate calendar. I actually think this was more enjoyable because she felt she was actively bringing Santa closer by building his beard, whereas the candy or treat-filled calendars just turned into daily, "What did I get?!" moments, as she thrusts the molded candy into our faces to figure out which Mickey Mouse character it's supposed to look like.

This was great fun and I hope to find or invent something similar next year! :)
Here's a photo of Sophie's finished calendar. (The calendar shown above is slightly different than the one below, as the one above is the one I helped her friend cut out, while Sophie wanted to do all her own cutting on hers.)