CRYSALYS
CRAFTS

ADVENT
CALENDAR
TREE

 

Materials

  1. A small branch - choose one with several offshoots
  2. Spray or acrylic paint - white
  3. Silver glitter
  4. A jar or a large yoghurt pot or similar container
  5. A handful of gravel or small stones
  6. Plaster of Paris or plasticine (balast)
  7. Christmas gift wrap and/or coloured tissue paper
  8. A small amount white cotton wool
  9. Coloured embroidery thread or similar
  10. PVA glue
  11. 24 tiny gifts/sweets/jokes/mottos/coins/pictures eg cut from old Christmas cards
    12.

 

Method
  1. Spray or paint the branch and sprinkle it with glitter before the paint dries so that the glitter sticks to the wet paint. Paint small areas at a time, over newspaper, which can the collect the spare glitter.
  2. Decorate the container - either stick on strips of plain paper or newspaper and paint a nice rich colour, or cover with strips of brightly coloured gift wrap - use PVA glue. Leave to dry. As an added effect, paint some string and leave to dry. Paint the rim (also the base if you wish) of the pot with PVA glue first then wrap the string around the glued area of the rim a few times.
  3. When both the branch and the pot are dry, fill the pot to halfway with the gravel and push in the branch so that it stand independently.
  4. Fill the pot to the top either with Plaster of Paris (mixed to manufacturer's instructions) or with plasticine pressed down firmly.
  5. Cover the plasticine/plaster with cotton wool to resemble snow.
  6. Wrap the 24 tiny gifts in gift or tissue paper and tie with the embroidery thread leaving a loop from which to hang each one from the tree.
  7. Number the tiny presents from 1 to 24 (write, paint or stick on the numbers).
  8. Arrange the presents on the branch before the end of November for opening one per day from the 1st to the 24th December.
    9.

This page was last updated 29th March 2000
© 1999, 2000 Chrysalys Crafts

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