Day 155: recycled advent calendar

The first December Monthly Challenge idea! I just had to try it out.  Coming to use from Time to Craft.

She made it look so easy! And they turned out so cute.  I love finding great ideas on other blogs and I love it even more when I have the supplies and can instantly turn around and try them out.

What I don't love is when I don't have the crafting ability to pull it off! 

We painted out calendar. Yes, this is the one that I painted.  Sam's was more a giant green blob and she said she wanted to use mine for the calendar instead.

 
Then we cut the pictures that we wanted out of the Christmas cards. Sam is just starting to learn how to cut "around" things so this was a great challenge for her.

 
Then this is where things started to go wrong.  I thought I should glue the little pictures down onto the back first so that I knew exactly where they should go. So we glued.

 
But then I realized how will I know where on the front of the calendar to cut the windows?  So one by one I carefully pulled the pictures back off of the red back to trace them on the back of the front piece (the painted tree).  But this still didn't really work because as I worked my way up through all the little pictures the space on the calendar sides was not really matching up.  I thought oh well it will be close enough, she will still like it. So I kept going.  BUT when I got all the way to the end and placed the front piece on top of the back piece (ready to tape them together!) I realized that I had been tracing on the WRONG SIDE! So that when I flipped it on top the spot where I traced no longer matched up with the actual image!! 

As Charlie Brown would say (his Christmas movie has been played several times at this house already) GOOD GRIEF!

So I gave up.  But it would have been really cute. And with glitter all over the tree and a picture of the manger as day 25 it would have very closely resembled the Advent calendars we had growing up. But instead of buying it Sam and I would have used a few crafting supplies and lots of cut up Christmas cards. GENIUS!  Just wish I could have figured out how she made it look so darn easy!!

PLEASE check out the idea at Time to Craft because they are really cute and the way her kids make these FOR EACH OTHER is adorable.  It is a great idea for someone with even a pinky full of crafting ability!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

I have been seeing a lot of great green Christmas ideas out there lately so if you are one of those people doing something crafty right now that reuses something, reduces waste or otherwise helps you tread lightly right now PLEASE let me know so I can enter you into the December Challenge and share the idea with all my readers.  Without having to try it myself and butcher it!!

Sorry Cheryl that I could not pull this one off and wrecked your amazing idea.

Comments

[Angela]

Good for you for trying! I often look at those awesome crafts and sigh. I need more sleep and coffee to achieve them. But hey you and your sweetie got a chance to play together and Sam can learn that things don't always work out. Peace, Angela

[Cheryl]

Looks like you had fun. I love your tree. Believe me, I have made these for the last seven years and I have made every mistake possible. Last year, one calendar ended up with 21 windows. I had to add three pictures and add cardboard flaps while the children slept, hoping they wouldn't notice.

[Amy A]

Crafting, like a lot of other things in life just takes practice :). We made recycled tin punch ornaments this week, you might want to check those out.

[Heather @ Green Baby]

You are about as crafty as I am! ;)