TP Roll Advent Calendar...of sorts...

Last Christmas, I was a blog stalker.

Yes, it's true. I had just discovered the world of DIY/Home Decor blogs, thanks to my friend sending me a link to Thrifty Decor Chick. She thought I might be interested in checking it out.
 Little did she know what it would spark in me! I quickly went all the way back to the very first post and read my way through to the current post. Then I clicked on her links and found even more fantastic blogs...Centsational Girl...The Lettered Cottage...you know, all the really big blogs out there.
I devoured them all - front to back...or back to front? Anyhow, I started noticing that several of them came up with cute ideas for Advent calendars.
Right then and there, I decided I needed to come up with something for my own children this year.

I hadn't really come up with a concrete idea of what I wanted to do...until...I saw this owl cutie from Clean & Scentsible. Right away I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

And thus, the toilet paper roll Advent Calendar was born....

So start collecting your TP rolls now!

I may or may not have sent out an SOC (Save Our Christmas) to some of our family members to start saving their rolls for me too....maybe.

This is such an easy project...it'll be fun...I promise!

Collect 24 empty TP rolls.

I caught myself eyeing how much toilet paper was left on the roll in the church washrooms this morning.

There was way too much left, don't worry.

Find some cute wrapping or scrapbook paper that matches your decor or theme.

I'm going with a red & white theme in my kitchen this year, so this Dollar Store clearance paper fit in nicely. Cut a piece of paper the length of the roll and wide enough to wrap around.

Flatten out the roll.

Glue the paper down on one side.

I use hot glue because I am impatient.

Wrap it tightly around, overlap the edges slightly and glue down.

Then gently push in the ends so that they slightly overlap, and glue together.

I bought a couple bags of treats on clearance right after Halloween, knowing that I would need small pieces of candy to fill these packages.

And even though my kids are still very young, I want them to become familiar early on with the Christmas story and the reason we celebrate Christmas, so I wrote out one or two verses for each package, making up the complete story over the 24 days.

I rolled the slip of paper up and included it with the candy.

Press down the other end to create a cute little package!

I wrapped some jute twine around it lengthwise to keep it shut and add even more cuteness.

Then I looped another piece of twine through the jute wrapped around the package, and tied a knot so that it could be hung on a little tree.

I wasn't able to find any number stickers that I liked, so I went to the scrapbooking store and asked them to cut out the numbers 1 to 24 for me with their Cricut. They were fantastic at helping me out.

I glued the numbers on with more hot glue...cause I'm impatient and my kids had probably woken up from their naps by now.

And there you have it! It doesn't get much easier than that!

I have a three foot white Christmas tree that I have set up in our kitchen (yes, that's right...I already have some trees up...don't hate me!), and I have hung the packages on there. I can hardly wait until my little kiddies get to open up their little prizes!

I wrapped some of the packages with brown tissue paper and a wide red ribbon, just to mix things up a bit.

These could just as easily be hung on a twig tree or even from a large piece of fabric if you wanted to keep with a more traditional advent calendar look. Your imagination is your only limitation!

Now will someone go hang something in that bare spot up there...please?!

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To see the other great parties I'm linking to, click HERE!