Holiday Tutorials: Felt Advent Calendar

It's 7 weeks until Christmas! We're going to be sharing some holiday tutorials here on the blog for you to get into the spirit of the holidays! What better way to start off than with an Advent Calendar! This is quite an ambitious project, and took me a few weeks to create so you could attempt a simpler version if you so choose, or keep in mind for next year!

 Here's what you need:
- Large piece of felt/fleece for background
- Colored Felt (I got some at Walmart, the dollar store, and the sparkly ones at my local fabric store)
- Velcro
- Glue Gun
- Felt Squares for the pockets (mine are 2"x2")
- Scissors (not pictured)
- Patience ;)

First I sketched out what 'ornaments' I wanted for the tree.

Instructions:
1. Cut the size of background you want (Mine is 28" x 24")
2. Cut out 24 or 25 squares for the pockets (depending if you want to put an ornament up on Christmas Day as well) in the size you would like them to be (Mine are 2" x 2")
3. Start making your little ornaments.  This part is just going to be how you choose to do it, I used one of the pocket squares as a guide for size for each ornament, and I drew the shape with a pen on the back of each one so as to avoid too many errors
4. Hot glue pockets to background as desired
5. Cut velcro into small pieces, the harder side on the pocket, the softer side on the back of the ornament
6. Cut out tree shape from green felt (This is hit or miss, trial and error with sizing, I just measured how much space I had left after the pockets were attached and that determined the height)
7. Glue the hard side of the velcro to the tree in the places you want the ornaments (I put all the ornaments on first and one by one took them off, making a pen mark where the velcro on the back of the ornament would be)
8. Glue on any extra details you want (I added the Christmas Lights along the edge to fill empty space)
9. Create your date and treat ideas on hang tags or small pieces of paper, and slide into pockets!
10. Pat yourself on the back, this is a lengthy process!


Because we're so busy during the holiday season, and I still wanted to do an activity Advent calendar, I made 3 sections: Dates, Treats, and the rest is more ornaments for the tree.

There's a lot of activity advent calendar ideas out there, but I'll share a few of mine with you to get you started!

Dates:
- Drive around and look at lights
- Go out for a Christmas treat!
- Build a gingerbread house
- Christmas movie with popcorn, hot chocolate and other treats!

 Treats:
- Terry's Chocolate Oranges
- Watch all the New Girl Christmas Episodes
- Husband gets a back rub
- Christmas CD swap