DIY Advent Calendar

I finally finished my DIY mini muffin tin advent calendar! I am thrilled with how it turned out, too. I hope it lasts for a few years, at least.

I took a few pics of my progress as I was working, but for some reason they didn't turn up on my phone. :( Here are some pics of the final results, though...

The hardest part of this entire thing was painting the muffin tin! I wanted it RED... but the tin I bought was non-stick. So, I bought red spray paint with primer in it. That didn't work. The paint bubbled up immediately and chipped right off. Then, I decided to use an old muffin tin that I hadn't used in years. It painted beautifully! However, it was aluminum... fiy: aluminum isn't magnetic. Ugh! That's when I brought Kevin in to help. He took over the painting job and after cleaning the bubbly paint off the original tin, several coats of heavy duty primer, several coats of red paint AND a couple coats of lacquer we got what we wanted. :)

The solid color circles are just craft foam (I wanted something sturdier than card stock) and the patterned circles are just craft/scrapbook paper. After cutting them out, I super glued them together. Then, I added the numbers, which are self stick "chip board". I chose black, glitter letters and numbers. Finally, everything is attached to the tin with little magnets. All in all, this project actually cost me around $25 to $30 so it wasn't super cheap. Here's the break down of the costs:

Mini muffin tin from Walmart - $5

Craft foam - $1.50

Scrapbook paper - $5

Chip Board letters/numbers - $8 (I had to get two packs so I would have enough number "1"s!)

Scrapbook Santa and stockings - $2

Spray paint and primer - $8

Could I have just bought a cute advent calendar for $30? Well, yes... but I am crafty, I enjoy crafts and I like the aspect of hand-made. So there!