One of my fondest Christmas memories is opening the tiny little doors of a paper advent calendar.  Every year, my mom would buy my sister and I our own little calendars (her way of providing peace on earth--no fighting over who got to open the doors).

I haven't had an advent calendar for years and I miss the tradition. So after seeing some really cute scrappy advent calendar ideas (including one by Jessica Acs who is currently writing a mini album book for us), I just had to make one.  I saw a wall-mounted, tree-shaped picture holder at Pier 1 a few weeks ago and snatched it up, just planning to hang it on the wall bare.  But inspiration struck and I got out some scraps of patterned paper and all my number stickers and voila! a tree was born.

(Here's a quick tip: If you run out of number “1”s use number “7”s.) The backs of all the squares have activities for my husband and I to do each day (like drink hot chocolate and give each other foot massages). And it makes us feel like kids again, finding ourselves racing to the tree and eagerly anticipating a new activity Plus, making this calendar was so incredibly quick and easy, and it can be adapted to any style and any structure.  Try hanging squares from a miniature Christmas tree or tack squares to a bulletin board. Since it's already December 6, you could make a tree like this without the numbers and just choose squares at random.

And check out the forum and the Masters blog to get more great ideas for using your supply scraps this month. Hope you all have a joy-filled holiday season!

Kristin