Puzzle Advent Calendar

I love Christmas. Really, it's my favorite holiday. And not for the presents. One of the things I look forward to every year is the countdown to Christmas- the advent calendar.

As I kept growing up, I felt like I was growing out of the traditional chocolate advent calendar. Ok, I'm lying, I still get my chocolate advent calendar. But, I wanted some other way to countdown to Christmas. So I put my thinking cap on, and this is what I came up with. I call it, the Puzzle Advent Calendar. I made it 2 years ago, but since my blog is new, I'm only sharing it now.



The idea is that every day...



...you get to turn over a piece of the puzzle.





Then as you turn over more and more pieces every day...



... you get to see the big picture, and build the puzzle!



I wanted a way to move the pieces around to be able to do the puzzle. So each piece is in it's own little pocket. There are 24 pockets, with vinyl on the front to be able to see inside.



And each has some velcro on the back.



Naturally, there is velcro on the frame too.





Speaking of the frame, or the base of the calendar. It's like a picture frame, only instead of being made of wood, it's entirely made of fabric! There's 3 layers. The outer layer is wider and made of this suede-like fabric that is also quilted, which gives the frame this great texture. The 2nd layer is made with stripped fabric. I just fell in love with this fabric when I saw it, it was more expensive than I was hoping to spend (13$/meter), but it's my "piece de résistance" fabric. The other fabric I got were all 4 or 5$/m. And the inner layer, the thinnest one, is just light green to tie it all together. I love the look!



So once Christmas has come, all the pieces are revealed, and the puzzle is complete! And you get a pretty picture to look at until you decide to take it down. I'm gonna spoil the picture and show you how it looks like all done. These are the pieces I used the first time, 2 years ago.









As soon as I came up with this idea, I knew I would be making some for my friends. So I made 4 extra ones (up to date, they take a LONG time to make!). Every year, I print the new pieces and send them to my friends with a Christmas card. I don't get the surprise of unveiling the pieces every year since I make them, but at least they do! I use a wallpaper with a scene or an image I like. I made the calendar so it would fit the normal wallpaper size.

So that's my advent calendar! I hope you liked it. Can you believe that was my first sewing project? I had a LOT of help from my grand-ma, I really couldn't have done it without her. And lining up those stripped corners so they align perfectly was not an easy task, but I love the outcome.

Oh yeah, and even though I'm 24, I still get a chocolate advent calendar from my mom. (Thanks mom!) She got one for my bf too!





I`d love to know what you think! Would you like a tutorial to know how to make it yourself? Is it too complicated? Do you think your kids would have fun with this advent calendar?

Thanks for reading!



Also linked up with:

Advent Calendar Link Party @ Nap Time Creations