advent calendar - box of mini boxes!

Our family likes to use the month of December to purposefully spend time with each other each day, this is a great way to do so when things get busy.

I bought the brown cardboard set from Hobby Lobby, but have had it at least two years before finally getting around to finishing it off.  I used multiple cans of spray paint for different metallic finishes- sterling silver, dull aluminum, hammered silver, dark bronze, and white. I also use two colors of spray glitter, sealing them well with a clearcoat.  At this point, some time between when I spray-painted in the garage on Sunday and today, Wednesday, one of the boxes randomly went missing. Lovely.  You will see in the next post, I just used washi tape for the center box, because I gave up looking and it's too cold to spray paint.

Lay out lots of little happy random things for all the numbers....

And hot glue! Add handwriting for those needed.  I'm still not done with the numbers, I have to find my LabelMaker and some number stickers that are at my studio.

We are happy with it! It will hold little treats for the kids, or tags that tell them fun family activities for the day, like Cocoa night, storytime, movie night, family night out, Smore's, etc.  They will also open preselected gifts from time to time, like books for a day they'll be home, a cute toy for a long car ride, pajamas, a new ornament for their tree, or crafts we can do together that afternoon.