Weekend Creative | Advent Action Cards
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I'm a big fan of Advent calendars.
Many of you have seen the Advent boxes I made back in 2007 (inspired by Martha). I'm currently looking for new place to hang them in our house. Last year we also had a LEGO® City Advent Calendar
The little something else for 2010 are hand-drawn Advent cards with specific actions to be taken each day.
Here's a video that shows you what I did and talks a bit more about the project.
Ali Edwards | Advent Action Cards from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.
Here's the how-to for this project:
Purchase and download the Advent Boxes digital kit. For convenience and simplicity I've included a red, green, brown, and black PDF file included with the package. Just download, open + print.
Print the PDF file(s) of your choice. I printed on photo paper (currently using Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl). I printed both the red and the brown to have a mix of the two. The digital package also includes each frame individually if you wanted to do something like add the frames to photos.
Adhere pattern paper to the back of the 8.5x11 sheet of paper. For this step I used Xyron's Creatopia machine. They are a sponsor here on my blog and sent me a machine to test out. The pattern papers I used are: "Tiri" from 3ndypapir.no (really lovely papers from Norway), Bo Bunny Wild Berry Red Dot, and Anna Griffin Christmas Cardstock Pack (used this for the inside cover pages of my December Daily).
Cut out or punch with a square punch. I used this 2.5 inch square punch from Marvy (they list it as 3.5 inches but that's the diagonal measurement).
Add a number sticker or embellishment on the back if you want them to be numbered. Letter stickers and embellishments shown in the video include: American Crafts Foam Subway Cherry, Jenni Bowlin Vintage Christmas Chipboard Buttons, Banana Fish Studio Milk Caps.
Hand-write your daily actions. I used a Precision Pen from American Crafts. See my daily action suggestions below.
Add to your Advent Boxes, pocket calendar, tree branches, or just have them in a bowl on your table.
At the end of each day these little cards could be added to your December Daily.
ENCOURAGING OUR KIDS TO LOOK BEYOND THEMSELVES
For each of the daily sentiments I wanted to head in the direction of answering this question: what things that can help our kids look beyond themselves and celebrate the season. That was my initial focus.
I want words that require action. I want activities that are developmentally appropriate. I want things that are fun. I want activities that invoke the spirit of the season. I also want to include a few fun traditions like looking at lights while drinking hot cocoa, getting our tree and visiting Santa.
I like the idea that these cards can act as a road map for the season. I like that each day Simon (with a little help from Anna) can pick out a card and it can steer us in a specific direction for the afternoon or evening.
Here's what I've come up with so far (I'd love to read your suggestions and ideas in the comments section):
Tell a friend at school you think they're really cool.
Take a special treat to a neighbor.
Pick a name from the giving tree. Find a gift for that person.
Make a small stocking. Drop it off on someone's door as a surprise.
Make a card for a loved one and send it in the mail.
Recycle some toys to share with others.
Read a Christmas book to your sister.
Light a candle and say a prayer for a loved one far away.
Take food to a local food pantry.
Take a trip to get the Christmas Tree.
Go see Santa.
Go look at Christmas lights & drink hot cocoa.
Make thank you notes before they are needed.
Write a list of 10 things you are thankful for this year. Share with your Grandma
ANOTHER COOL IDEA
Doris, one of the super creative members of the Designer Digitals team, used the PNG files on top of photos to create this set of Advent cards that she'll be hanging on some branches in her home. She originally emailed asking me to make some more hand-drawn Christmas boxes where the words were farther down on the box - leaving room for a cute face. Thanks for the inspiration Doris!
I hope you all have a great weekend!
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143 comments
LOVE this idea! As a family we ring bells for the Salvation Army every year. We choose a date well in advance due to the craziness of the season (add to that both of my children's birthdays are the week before Christmas!) and the desire to have an indoor or heated location, however you can just stop and ring bells at any kettle if you see it is unmanned. Other ideas... giving a secret santa gift to someone, donating new or gently used books to the shelters, make cut-out cookies and take them to an assisted living home (many nursing homes have strict diet rules), go to a nursing home and sing carols, do a holiday skit or offer to decorate a small tree for a resident that doesn't have family near by. Offer to walk an elderly neighbors dog (or any neighbor for that matter)...
Thank you Ali for bringing me into the holiday season this year. It will be a tough one for our family having just lost my mother-in-law but having the December Daily book and the advent cards will be a huge help in getting us through the holidays.
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Ali,
I love these cards and the idea for them. Thank you for another cool holiday idea and will put these in our DD album. What I do with our kids is make a paper chain of red & green and the hang it in the kitchen. The red ones are things to do at home the green are things to do outside of home or to take to a family/neighbor kinda thing. We do most of the ideas you listed and the other commenters. We also include a secret santa one during the week off from school and they do secret things leading up to Christmas day and revealing ourselves that morning, this one is the kids favorite one to do. We also make ornaments for the tree and watch Christmas movies by the tree lights. Thanks for this again Ali. Have a wonderful weekend.
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Love these cards Ali, such a great idea.
Every year my boys give a christmas card to all the kids in their classroom and teacher, often there will be kids that they dont play with much through out the year but they still write a card for everyone so that no one is left out. We also do some sort of christmas baking for the class, last year we made candy cane reindeer, this year we are making reindeer cakepops, everyone in the class get ones of these two
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I love this idea. We do some sort of this thing too, but not every day in December. I love the way this is formatted! I am definitely going to work this in.
Some of the things that we do are:
1. Make hand/foot print plates at a local pottery shop. I do a plate every year for each child. Then we use the plates for Christmas dinners and trays. It is so fun to see their little hands and feet in the later years. I will have 3 sets when the kids are older and plan on giving them to each child when he/she starts their own family.
2. Find our old coats and deliver them to the local coat drive for the homeless
3. Make Christmas cookies
4. Open Christmas jammies... always on December 24th
5. Go to Starbucks or the local coffee shop and have a "holiday" drink with cookies
6. Serve at a local homeless shelter... have yet to do this one as my oldest is only 3 1/2... but plan on adding this one in
7. Wrap Christmas presents for others or make wrapping paper for presents... stamps and brown paper bags (a good way to recycle those bags or you can get it in the rolls if you use re-usable bags like we do)
8. Make Christmas ornaments
9. Make Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas presents... we always make them something each year, usually something with handprints and a photo
10. Shovel the snow for the neighbors... they are the most lovely older couple in their 70's
These are just a few of the things we do... I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.
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I love your idea and the prompts - it is a special way to keep the meaning of Christmas in focus. I am eager to try them.
FIRST though - I am trying to print the December Daily overlays using the PDF format. I cannot get it to scale correctly - there is no "scale" feature on my printer. I have an HP LaserJet P1006 and also a Canon MP 620. Any ideas?
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Do you use photoshop? there is a scale option when you choose "print with preview" in photoshop. Also, if you open the pdf in Adobe Reader, when you choose "print," the dialog box has a Page Scaling option there. hth :)
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Take your sister by the hand and make snow angels :)
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Fantabulous project! Looks like it's not too time consuming for Mom to make, but big payoff for family getting into the spirit of Christmas.
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That was my goal :)
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I love this :)
I have a quilted advent calendar with little pocked that I use every year. I usually fill it with little pieces of paper with activities on them (usually planned out so the big things fall on weekends); stuff like "eat a Christmas orange" or "decorate" or "drive around and look at lights". These cards will be so much cuter than my bits of paper (and I'm doing the December daily project too so they'll have somewhere to go after the holidays).
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I started doing this last year and I'm SO looking forward to it again this year! My son had a blast opening the doors and finding out what our activity for the day was. (It's going to be tougher this year since I'm back at work and not on maternity leave!)
Other ideas that we did: write a letter to Santa, put on Christmas music and dance, watch a favorite holiday movie (Grinch, Rudolf, Merry Madagascar), make yule kag with grandma (a holiday tradition from my childhood - you could substitute cookies or some other favorite holiday desert), make paper snowflakes, go sledding, drive around to see the Christmas Lights, and have a picnic under the Christmas tree. Some other things from my childhood that I included: putting the wooden shoes out for Sinterklaas, and reading Santa Mouse. We also rode the Polar Express - I think that one was the favorite of the whole month.
I'm hoping to combine this with your December Daily this year!
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Oh, I love the picnic under the christmas tree! I am so adding that into our bunch!
A picnic under the tree is a FABULOUS idea!
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I love this and will incorporate it into our advent calendar. I like to do a mix of fun things (holiday shirts, ornaments, etc) and experiences. Here are some ideas from our family (kids 9, 7 and 4):
1. Decorate a gingerbread house.
2. Have a Christmas tree camp out -- sleeping around the Christmas tree.
3. Watch a holiday movie together.
4. Attend programs at library and local nature center
5. Shop for adopted family.
6. Craft basket -- goodies for making paper chains, pom-pom garlands, noodle garlands.
7. Plant paperwhites (do early so they are blooming for Christmas).
8. Make gifts for the birds.
9. Family game night -- get a new game.
10. Fondue night.
11.Attend holiday concert or play.
12. Make ornaments.
13. Make gifts for teachers.
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I love your post and your Advent Action Cards idea! Some of the things we like to do at Christmas include decorating a gingerbread house, watch the Christmas parade with the family, listening to our favorite holiday music, make and send cards, make crafts, watch our favorite old-time Christmas movies with the family, and in the spirit of giving, it it is always fun to make and deliver/mail holiday cards and gifts to either hospitals, or homeless shelters.
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Cute ideas...love the boxed Advent calendar.
Ideas of things I did growing up or just thought of...
1. Build snowmen in front of a Senior Center
2. Go Carrolling
3. Buy your pet a special holiday treat or take to the dog park.
4. Collect all your can tabs and donate to Ronald McDonald House.
5. Create art/craft bags for kids in hospital for the holidays.
6. Mail unused xmas cards to St Jude's Ranch for them to use in their Recycled Card Program.
7. Make Snow Angels and then enjoy snow ice cream.
8. Celebrate another religious or cultural holiday by trying new foods, learning about Hannakkah, etc.
Have fun.
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So YOU bought those vintage milk caps from Banana Fish Studio--LOL. I had my eye on those but didn't act quickly enough and they were gone . . . and no more have been listed since :-( What an awesome project to use them with. Love it.
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You should email her and see if she's making any more. Love them - great little addition.
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I just compiled a story like this - for the church (Children's ministry) Advent Guide for this year (Advent starts on Nov. 29 - the Sunday after Thanksgiving - AND for a project for the Dec DST insider.
Obviously, we're thinking alike!
K
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Tis the season! I'd love to read what you wrote :).
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i'm having a really difficult time finding a good self healing cutting mat that doesn't leave marks after cutting. which cutting mat do you use?
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Hi Linda - the one you see in the video and photos is from this site: http://www.cutting-mats.net/self-healing-cutting-mats.html. I ordered a custom size one to fit on top of my table.
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I adore this project! Thanks for sharing. Our family will be using this idea with our traditional advent calendar.
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Lots of great stuff above (love the picnic under the tree idea and making a card for military or service personnel etc) - I haven't even been thru all of them. Was just thinking that this year I may have our children pick a name from a tree or one of those type of ideas and contribute $ from their "giving" savings/piggy bank toward the selection & purchase of the gift (and time to wrap etc). I'm into giving heart stuff whether it is in the form of time, talent or blessings (and I include $ in this, regardless of the amount). Can't wait to read the rest of the ideas. Heidi
PS Love the boxes. Love Doris' idea w/ photos on one side. Love me envisioning a few lovely branches from trees stuck in a big pot filled with pine cones or rocks or something and sitting in our home with potentially painted branches and these hanging on it.
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Such an inspiring video. Thanks so much, I will definitaly do this!
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SUPER CUTE idea!! LOVE it and will be adapting for our family!!! Thanks, as always, for the inspiration!
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Visit a Senior Home with small bottles of hand lotion to give as gifts. The elderly love to see the kids!
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