Want to create an advent calendar that is meaningful and highlights the real meaning of Christmas? This family activity advent calendar does just that!
Like a lot of families I know, we are really trying to simplify this Christmas. We are trying to simplify all around, but especially at Christmas, when the general mindset seems to be “bigger, more, extra”. We’re trying to limit needless spending and consumerism, and try to focus on family time instead. So when it came to planning this years Advent calendar, that was exactly what was in my mind.
I created a chipboard ornament for each day of the Christmas advent (you can do a 12 day version or a 24 day version, both are included in my Cricut Design Space canvas). On the back, there is an icon embossed into the foil that represents a family activity that we will do on that day. For instance, there is a skate for skating, an envelope for sending Christmas card, a pair of scissors for a Christmas craft, etc. Some are more obvious than others, which make it a fun game to figure out what the family activity for the day will be.
Family Activity Advent Calendar:
Supplies and Tools
I took a picture of some of the supplies you could use in this project, but the exact supplies I used are listed below. I also included affiliate shopping links to the Cricut site, so you can grab it all in one shot (the Cricut site tends to have the best deals on cutting supplies by far!)
- Cricut chipboard – 12 ornaments will fit on one sheet
- patterned vinyl – red buffalo plaid from Rustic Lodge Lumberjack and green buffalo plaid from Rustic Lodge Forest
- foil iron on – red and green (available individually or as part of the Bejewelled Sampler)
- glitter iron on – red and white
- iron on – red and white
- felt – red, green, and white (see note below regarding felt)
- foil poster board – red and green (both part of the Bejewelled pack)
- hot glue sticks
- baker’s twine or string
The tools you will need are:
- Cricut Maker
- knife blade (chipboard)
- rotary blade (felt)
- scoring wheel or scoring stylus (embossing foil backs)
- fine tip blade (everything else)
- cutting mats in purple, pink, and green or blue
- hot glue gun
- weeding tool
Remember, you don’t have to create your family activity advent calendar exactly like I did. You can adjust the materials based on what you have on hand and what tools you own.
*Felt: I used red and green felt from Cricut but was all out of white Cricut felt and used fabric store felt. It was much “woolier”, with lots of frizz and fuzz. The finished product was definitely less clean than the Cricut felt, so if at all possible, I would highly recommend using the Cricut felt.
Family Activity Advent Calendar:
Making the Ornament Base
First, open the Design Space canvas here. Everything you need for this project is on one canvas, and is arranged in the order you will use them in the layers panel (the top layer will be used first, the second layer next, etc.)
The first thing to cut is your chipboard ornament bases. To do this, hide all layers except the one blank ornament shape (top layer). Hit Make It, enter 12 or 24 in the “Number of Projects” box, and hit apply. It will automatically place 12 or 24 ornaments on your canvas. Don’t forget to change your material size to 11×11!
Set your material to 2.0mm chipboard and load your mat and knife blade. Hit cut, and relax while the knife blade does the hard work for you. (I usually stop my chipboard between 10-12 passes. I find it very rarely need to go the full 20 passes. For more info on cutting chipboard with the knife blade, see this post.)
For the front of the ornament, I used six different materials: green plaid, red plaid, white glitter, red glitter, green foil, and red foil. Use each material twice for 12 days, and four times for 24 days. Once the chipboard was cut, hit Make It again on the same ornament shape (keep all other layers hidden) and enter 2 or 4 in the project copies. Set the material, change to the fine tip blade, and cut the fronts for the ornaments.
Apply the vinyl layers to the front of the chipboard, and use the Easy Press 2 to adhere the iron on to the chipboard. (For temps, use the Interactive Easy Press Guide, however only press each of them for about 10 seconds.)
Family Activity Advent Calendar:
Making the Numbers
Head back to the Design Space canvas, where the blank ornament layer can now be hidden (or deleted). Make the next three attached layers (the numbers) visible, and hit Make It.
Make sure to mirror your iron on layers, and use the fine tip blade and a green or blue mat.
For the felt layers, Design Space will try to cut with the fine tip blade as well, but I prefer to cut with the rotary blade. To change the tool, click the Edit Tools option in the Load Mat and Tools section, and switch to the rotary blade.
Here are how I matched the numbers and patterns up:
- Green plaid: red felt with white iron on
- Green foil: red felt with white iron on
- Red foil: green felt with white iron on
- White glitter: green felt with red iron on
- Red glitter: white felt with green foil iron on
- Red plaid: white felt with green foil iron on
Press the iron on numbers to the felt backing with your Easy Press 2 – the mini sized EP2 was so perfect for this project!
After pressing, use a hot glue gun to attach the numbers to the front of each ornament.
Family Activity Advent Calendar:
Making the Activity Backings
The last part of these ornaments is creating the “embossed” activity icons. I have created 24 already for you (the list of activities and icons are listed below), which you can choose from, or create your own. To create your own, choose an image in design space, size and attach to the blank ornament, and then change the layer to score. Hide or delete the number layers that were just cut, and make the remaining layers visible.
If you are only making a 12 day calendar, you can choose 12 ornaments to score and cut, then delete or hide the rest.
Design Space will try to use the double scoring wheel for the foil poster board. Use the Edit Tools option again, and change it to the single scoring wheel (or if you don’t have the scoring wheel, change it to scoring stylus). Load the scoring wheel and foil poster board, and once the scoring is completed, change to the fine tip blade.
Use hot glue, a glue stick, or a tape runner to stick the foil poster board to the back of the chipboard ornaments. Tie a loop of twine or string through the hole and you’re done!
Family Christmas Activities:
Here are the list of activities that I created for my calendar, listed in order shown in Design Space:
Top row, left to right:
- build a snowman
- read a Christmas story
- bake cookies
- make paper snowflakes
- look at Christmas lights
- pick out a tree
- wrap gifts
- visit Santa
Middle row, left to right:
- decorate the tree
- watch a Christmas movie
- go skating
- visit a nativity scene
- go sliding
- make a gingerbread house
- make hot cocoa
- buy a toy for a charity toy drive
Bottom row, left to right:
- make a card/gift for teachers
- make ornaments for grandparents
- Christmas church service/mass
- make a Christmas craft
- decorate your bedroom door
- have a family game night
- send Christmas cards
- fill a Christmas shoebox
Some other ideas include Christmas parades, specific Christmas movies or stories, make an ugly Christmas shirt/sweater, volunteer at a soup kitchen or shelter, go carolling, or buy/download a new Christmas album to listen to together. You can also incorporate any traditions you may already have!
Family Activity Advent Calendar
I love that this advent calendar was able to come together easily with my Maker. Sure, it did take a little more time than my projects usually do, but a lot of it was passive time while the Maker cut and scored the materials. I actually folded a few loads of laundry while it was cutting and scoring! (How’s that for multitasking?! Just make sure you stay close to your machine in case it pauses due to debris, especially with the knife blade!)
Also, I didn’t permanently attach the activity layer to the back of my ornaments so I can change them up next year. As a bonus benefit, this advent calendar is small and easy to store away for next year.
Now it’s your turn: How do you celebrate Advent? Do you give small gifts? Chocolate? We have also done a book advent and a kindness advent (you can view those here) and I am hoping this one will be just as popular. Also, what is your favorite Christmas activity to do as a family? I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below, or visit me on instagram, facebook, or in my facebook group, Create with Cricut. Make sure to tag me if you make your own family activity advent calendar!
For more great Cricut Christmas fun, view my Guide to Gift Wrapping with Cricut, these adorable Embossed Gift Boxes (also using foil poster board and the scoring tool), or this fun DIY coloring gift wrap using the Cricut pens!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
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