Repurposed Paper Bag Advent Calendar
When I go shopping I tend to bring my own re-usable bag. However, sometimes I forget or I end up with an impulse purchase and don't have a bag on me. So I get one of the store bags which in a lot of the cases these days are made of paper, as it's better for the environment. I decided to repurpose these paper bags into this years advent calendar. I have made one in the past out of upcycled tin cans (see it here).
I had acquired quite a few paper bags of the year. Some where plain others had pretty patterns on them. There was quite a variety though which was good for this craft.
The other thing you will need for this craft is some Christmas cookie cutters. If you don't have any just visit the blog post at the end, where you can download the Christmas shape templates and use those instead.
Place the cookie cutter onto the paper bag and draw around it.
Next cut out the shapes, you will need 2 for each shape.
Carry on cutting out Christmas shapes. I cut out 24 shapes in total one for each day of the advent calendar.
Place 2 shapes wrong sides together and sew them around the edges on a sewing machine leaving a small gap.
If you don't have a sewing machine you can glue the edges together instead. Sewing paper is more fun though!
Next, using a stencil and a sharpie write a number on each Christmas shape. You will want to write the numbers from 1 to 24.
Then decide what you want to put in your advent calendar. My boys get a Christmas joke and a sweet treat each day. Fill your shape and then stitch (or glue) them closed.
Finally, once you have made all 24 advent bags then all that is left to do is to hang them on some twine using small craft pegs.
My boys have had fun trying to spot which shop the bags are from and are looking forward to starting their advent calendars on the first of December.
I've also made them another advent calendar this year (no-sew) from an old dictionary and free printable vintage images. This advent not only looks fabulous but is educational too. You can see it here.
Resources for this project:
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