Good thing I hoard.

I realized on November 29th that I had been intending to create an awesome advent calendar.  Truly, truly awesome.  Big dreams, guys.  HUGE.  This realization was followed by procrastinators remorse, since I was fairly certain there was no way I could recreate any of the advents I'd pinned in only two days, with no money left in the craft budget.

The fact is, this has happened literally every year for the past 3 years.  And once again, I was going to put it on the to-do list for next year - resolving to finally check it off early in November.

And then I thought, no.  No, by golly.  These kids need an advent.  (And quite frankly, I kind of needed one too, to help get me in the right mood for Christmas...)  So I decided to quickly dig around the house and in only two nights create:

It's groundbreaking, really. I know.  Make some cute printable circles - red, turquoise, citron green - with numbers 1-24.  Print them out on white card stock.  Punch the circles out with your circle punch.

Brown paper lunch bags.  Plain white card envelopes.  Washi tape.  Ribbon.  Baker's Twine.  Decorate to your hearts content.  Though, I do discourage you from staying up until 2 to finish this step.  
Slip in a tiny scrap of paper with a fun family activity and two small treats - which may or may not be leftover Halloween candy.  And by may or may not I mean definitely was.  I was going for on-hand here, remember?  I also slipped in a few non-sugary treats like some super balls and sticky hands.

I needed an "on-hand" way to hang the bags and envelopes.  I created a bow with some heavy cotton fabric that was kind of stiff and would hold its shape.  I sewed a casing using some white fabric for the inside of the bow.  After making the casing, I sewed it into a rectangle.  Then I squished it in the middle and wrapped some knit fabric around it, tying it tightly in a double knot in the back.  

I left the ends long so I could attach the goodies.

I used wooden clothespins that I had - you guessed it - on hand. 

 I didn't buy a single darn item for this project.  Not one.  Not even the goodies, which is probably me being extra cheap, but I did only have two days to whip this whole thing up.

Maybe next year I'll make something crazy awesome.  I'm saving the bags as we open them as a backup though.

It's only December 5th.  You still have time.  Especially if you go this route.

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!