Our children love having an Advent calendar. They count down the days to Christmas, enjoying the special treats found in the calendar. This year, after seeing my project, they decided to leave the old Advent calendar in the trunk, and use these bags on the stair bannister instead. They took very little time for us to make, as the bag outline with cutting and folding lines, and the 24 numbered discs can be printed out onto plain paper. As you can see from the project picture, the Advent calendar was put up this afternoon, and the children are now looking forward to their first sweet treat tomorrow morning.
designed by Susan Penny
You will need:
Downloaded bag pattern and labels
25 sheets of photo-copier paper
Bakers twine for each bag
Double-sided tape
Sweets or gifts to fill each bag
Hole punch
This is what you do:
1 Print the bag pattern onto photo-copier paper, 24 times.
2 Cut out each bag shape following the solid lines on the printout.
3 With the printed side of the bag facing you, work along the larger dashed lines, making folds on the front side of the bag.
4 Again, working from the printed side, fold on the smaller dashed lines, making the creases on the reverse side of the paper.
5 Put double-side tape on the single white panel at one end of the bag. This should be attached to the underside of the double white panel at the other end of the bag.
6 Tape the bottom of the bag together.
7 Fold in the top edge of the bag.
8 With a hole punch make two holes on the top edge of the bag, on the front and back.
9 Cut lengths of bakers twine and thread though the holes in the bags, finishing each with a knot.
10 Print, then cut out the circular, red numbers 1 – 24 and tape them to the bags. Fill the bags with sweets or toys and hang them up from a garland or on a length of string.