| ISSUE 44 • 18 NOVEMBER 2007 | |
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Editorial Welcome to Kids Craft Weekly! It's been a busy fortnight with plenty of exciting news and fun projects to announce. I'm very pleased to reveal that there has been much work behind the scenes to bring you another Kids Craft Weekly mini-book! This time the book is available as a printable book (in PDF format) so you can get your hands on it as soon as you've bought it.  Christmas Craft features 16 pages of fabulous ideas for December including advent calendars, cards, decorations, gift tags and more. It also has a special printable page of activity ideas for you to cut out and enclose in your own advent calendar. Christmas Craft has been professionally designed and compiled with love. Click here or on the banner above for more information and a closer look. Also new this week is a special page of Hanukkah craft ideas. It features instructions for making a simple dreidel card, fabulous macaroni Menorah and some Hanukkah activity envelopes. Thanks so much to subscriber Dayna for encouraging me to put together this page. Out in blogland it's great to see the Christmas crafting is getting underway nice and early. My Little Loves made some great felt tree cards that were featured in the last issue, and Hop Skip Jump put together these terrific Santa cards that I simply adore! Speaking of cards, the Kids Craft Weekly homemade card swap is still open for sign-ups until the end of November. Happy crafting and I'll see you next time!  Amber Carvan editor@kidscraftweekly.com |
Advent calendars are a great way to help kids understand how long they have to wait until Christmas! Instead of purchasing a calendar that contains the usual sweets or trinkets, consider making your own advent calendar that includes a fun family activity for each day from December 1 – 24.
This is a really simple and cute advent calendar. We've used potato prints to decorate the envelopes but you could make it even more simple by buying some Christmas stamps or stickers and letting your little ones go crazy with the embellishments! You will need • small envelopes • stickers or paint to decorate • string • miniature pegs • advent activities, sweets or trinkets to put inside Directions 1. Decorate some miniature envelopes using potato prints or stickers. Whatever you choose to do, keep it simple as you will have to repeat it 24 times!  2. Number the envelopes from 1 to 24 and enclose an advent activity and a sweet or trinket in each envelope.  3. String some colourful string along a wall or mantle and use mini pegs to hang the envelopes from the line. 
We made this lovely origami cup calendar for last year's activity advent calendar. If you're interested, the month of activities is documented on my personal blog. You will need • origami paper • ribbon • stapler • advent activities, sweets or trinkets to put inside Directions 1. Fold some origami paper into simple cups. Look here for instructions on how to fold an origami cup. Staple on some ribbon to make a handle then number the cups from 1 to 24 and enclose your advent activities plus some sweets or trinkets.  2. Pin the cups to a notice board or to some wood or hang from a curtain rod. 
I actually bought 24 matchboxes and emptied all the contents in order to make this calendar. Very wasteful, I know, and kind of crazy too. I was just so keen to make this great bank of drawers and I really love how it turned out. You will need • a lot of match boxes • strong glue • spray paint • colourful paper • numerical stickers • advent activities, sweets or trinkets to put inside Directions 1. Glue together 24 matchboxes to form a bank of drawers.  2. Paint or decorate around the outside of the boxes. We spray painted our boxes red...  ...and then glued small rectangles of colourful paper to the match box drawers.  3. Number the drawers and pop your advent activities inside each of them. 
Following are a few ideas to get you thinking about what activities you might like to include in your calendar. A smart way to plan your advent calendar is to pull out your diary and include pre-scheduled events and activities (such as 'go to the school Christmas concert') in your advent calendar so that you don't wind up with too much to do on any given day. You will find all these advent ideas and more along with a printable list of advent activities and numbers in Christmas Craft – the new Kids Craft Weekly printable book. You can buy it now for just $5 and be working on your advent calendar within five minutes!
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| 4. Great stuff and special
deals Advent Calendars at Amazon  Amazon have these great wooden advent calendars that you can fill with whatever takes your fancy. There are a couple of different styles but this one is my favourite. If I hadn't just made *three* advent calendars I would be very tempted. Remember that Kids Craft Weekly receives a tiny commission from your shopping if you enter Amazon via one of the links in Kids Craft Weekly. It's a great way to make a donation to the site without actually spending any more money than you were already parting with.
Handmade Advent Calendars on Etsy  If you love the look of handmade advent calendars but don't have the time to put one together, consider getting on the of many different handmade advent calendars that are available on Etsy. This great magnetic advent calendar is made from a cookie sheet! Click here for a full list of all the different advent calendars available on Etsy. |
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Featured subscriber blog
Love Monkey "I am a new mom and somewhat of an artist. The main reason for this site is to document and record our life with our son. I know we soon forget so I am going to try to remember this special time. And of course, share stories, photos and life with friends and family from across the pond and beyond!" To have your blog featured in this section just send in your web address and I'll add you to the list. But be warned, the waiting list is currently very long. |
| Thanks
for your support Donations help me to cover the costs of publishing the Kids Craft Weekly website and newsletter. By donating from time to time you can ensure that the newsletter remains a free source of crafty goodness for lovely folk from all around the world. You can contribute using MasterCard, Visa, Discovery or American Express or you can donate directly from your PayPal account. Thanks so much for your support. |
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