DIY // Advent Calendar

I'm so excited about this festive DIY post, especially since I took the photos for it almost a year ago! So last year myself and David decided we weren't going to do proper Christmas presents, instead we'd make each other an advent calendar filled with tiny goodies so we'd have something little and fun to open each morning on the run up to Christmas. 

Advent calendars are getting quite elaborate; speciality food ones, luxury candles and beauty products. They're also quite expensive and there's a chance you'll end up with a lot of random items that aren't to your taste. Creating an advent calendar means you can make it super personal. I really loved gathering all the bits for David's one and it was a lot of fun to wrap! There's so many ways of creating advent calendars like this, just take a look on Pinterest. I thought I'd share how I made my hanging one along with a free printable of the numbers I designed for it.

You will need:

• 24 tiny gifts (such as sweets, novelty stocking fillers, festive bits and pieces like our wee badges!, stationery, charity shop books, handmade vouchers for breakfast in bed etc... I think we kept ours to around £20)
• Tissue or wrapping paper
• Tape - Christmas washi tape is prettiest! (Try Iced Jems for some cute) ones
• Thick ribbon for hanging
• Mini pegs
• Thinner ribbon/twine
• Number stickers (printable download below or click here) or labels for drawing numbers on

There's not really any instructions for this one! All you need to do is decide what order you want the gifts in, mix it up so the sweets aren't all in a row etc, then wrap them up and make sure to stick the numbers on. Alternating colours of tissue paper with cute patterned tapes makes it look really effective. Next you just need to hang them up, depending on the size and shape of each parcel you might want to use twine and tie them up, a small piece of ribbon or just a peg - take a closer look at the photographs and you'll see what I mean. I had a couple of larger items which were too heavy to suspend so instead hid them and put a 'find me here' note in with the rest of the calendar! The overall effect is fun and mismatching so don't worry about anything being too perfect.

I've seen the hanging ones done with a branch to hold it all together which is really pretty and something I might try this year. Last time I used a thick tartan ribbon with fairy lights to finish off.

If you don't have space to put a hanging advent calendar like this then something like the one David made for me is a lovely alternative. He made his much simpler by filling a pretty basket with the parcels which did add a fun lucky dip element plus the basket was a nice bonus gift! 

Have you ever made an alternative advent calendar? I'd love to see pictures!

Brooch Frame DIY

I first saw a frame used to display brooches at Peapod (vintage shop, Aberdeen). I have a small collection of brooches which sit in boxes and aren't often worn and thought this would be a great way of showing them off and making them into a pretty piece of art for the wall! I found a tutorial over at The Yellow Buttercup and started keeping an eye out for the perfect frame. A few months on and I came across this one, framing pressed flowers, for a bargain £5 in a nearby charity shop. This frame needed no painting, and the whole project took about 10 minutes!

I chose a blue and cream floral vintage fabric, and cut this with over an inch around the edge of the backing. I cut the padding to the same size as the backing and secured this by folding over the fabric edge and sticking with a glue gun. This makes your frame backing into a pillow effectively, perfect for pinning brooches to.

Pop this back in the frame (without the glass) and you're ready to pin your brooches in whatever way you think works best. I attempted a random sort of grid layout. I love how this has turned out, I think they'd look great in a group on the wall with different frames filled with various colour groups of jewellery. Much more fun than jewellery boxes and practical too!