Advent Calendar From Cardboard

As a gift for a friend I made an advent calendar with one sock behind each 'door'. They are all socks with funny patterns to brighten up the days towards Christmas.

For this project you will need:

- Cardboard

- Ruler

- Glue (I used woodglue but I suggest to use something that dries a little quicker)

- To decorate: paint markers or other markers, paper, paint, stickers etc. Really anything you like!

- Lasercutter OR Stanley knife and cutting mat

For the gifts you will need:

- 24 presents

- Wrapping paper

- Scissors

- Tape

Start with wrapping up your gifts. After you wrapped them, measure all sides of the biggest presents. In my case the presents were all about 10cm long, 7 cm deep and 3 cm high. Write the sizes down as you will need them later!

Make sure not to simply copy my sizes but to match it to the sizes of your own presents!

Because my presents are around 10 x 7 x 3 cm, I decided to give the little doors a size of 8 x 4 cm. (1 cm more than needed on each side). I cut them with a lasercutter with the 'dotting' mode. If you cut them by hand, make sure to leave some little parts connected so that the doors can't open without a little effort. Make sure to make a test door and see if it opens as wanted and if all your presents fits through it.

After testing, cut the 24 doors out of the 'front' panel of your advent calendar. Make sure to keep enough space between the doors as on the inside there will be a grid of cardboard and you want all the doors to be able to open. I had a very little space inbetween the doors and would advice you to put a bit more space between the different doors, it will make the glueing process easier for you.

You will need a back panel of the same size as the front panel. For the side panels I used a depth of 11 cm. This is because the presents are 10 cm long and you want to have some extra space just to be sure they all fit.

You will need 8 pieces of cardboard with some gaps in it in 2 different sizes (5 long and 3 shorter pieces). We will use those to create the grid between the doors on the inside of the calendar. I made the gaps 5.5 cm cm long (half of the 11cm depth) and gave them a with of 3 mm (thickness of my cardboard). BE AWARE: Those 8 pieces are 6 mm smaller (2 times the thickness ot the cardboard) than the outside measurements of the front and back panel because they have to fit inside of the side panels.

Slide the different parts with gaps in each other to create a grid for the inside. Make sure to test if all your presents fit in the grid.

Place your front panel with the good side facing down on the table. Put the grid above it and place it in a way that the grid is around all the doors. Glue the grid to the back of the front panel.

Glue the sides around the grid and let the glue dry.

Make sure to leave the back panel OFF for now; we didn't fill it with presents yet and we don't want to open the little doors!

To decorate the advent calendar I used paint markers. I love using them as they are very bright and cover dark surfaces easily. You can also use other markers, paint, stickers or paper. Really anything you want. Make sure everything has dried well before you will continue with the next step.

Now that we have a beautiful advent calendar, place it facing down on the table and fill it with the presents. When everything is inside, glue the back panel to the advent calendar.

You can now give the advent calendar to someone and let him/her enjoy a present a day until christmas!