Quick and can be reused every year: All you need for this kitchen roll Advent calendar are kitchen rolls and golden spray paint. Here’s how it works.
You can easily make a golden kitchen DIY Advent calendar out of three kitchen rolls, from which a little surprise falls every day. To do this, pull a numbered divider out of a kitchen roll every day and a surprise will fall out of the bottom.
This kitchen roll advent calendar is great for vouchers, sayings or sweets – we’ve already put together 24 creative ideas for filling advent calendars.
Disposable materials such as kitchen rolls and toilet rolls are wonderful for making something new out of them. After we already made a snowflake toilet roll Advent calendar this year, we also used three kitchen rolls for a pretty Star of Bethlehem. To give it away, I wanted to make a DIY Advent calendar that is a bit quicker to make – you can find the instructions here.
Everything I used for the craft is clearly listed in the material list. What you need to make the calendar is available in craft shops or on amazon. For this kitchen roll Advent calendar, however, you hardly need any materials that passionate crafters don’t have in stock anyway. 🙂
This kitchen roll Advent calendar is not my first upcycling project for Christmas decoration! Last year we already made toilet roll stars and a Advent calendar in a jar . 🙂
What You Need*
- 3 kitchen rolls
- 1 piece of cardboard or raft paper
- 1 Dark white cardboard, A4
- Golden spray paint
- Dark red satin ribbon, width 6 mm
- Hot glue gun
- Revolving punch pliers
- Wooden Advent calendar numbers
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- Cutter
- Scissors
- Paper clips
- Newspaper to place underneath
- Craft mat
How to Make a Kitchen Roll Advent Calendar
1. Slit Kitchen Rolls and Spray
First, staple the three kitchen rolls together at the bottom with paper clips and fix a measuring tape to them. One kitchen roll is 25.5 cm long. I measured 3 cm at each end of the kitchen rolls and drew the marks for the first slits there. In between, use a pencil to draw marks for the other slits at irregular intervals (but no closer than 2 cm apart, so that a surprise fits into each gap). So on each of the 3 kitchen rolls you have to mark 8 slits.
Then I put the measuring tape along the mark parallel to the edge of the kitchen roll and drew horizontal lines for the slits at the marks with the pencil and cut them out with the cutter.
Then draw the divider once on the A4 cardboard and use it as a template for the other 23 dividers. If you are saving space, all 24 dividers will fit on one A4 card.
For the lid, I used the back of a writing pad, placed the three stapled rolls on top and went around them. Now I painted curved tips on the curves and spaces and cut out the dividers and lid.
The gifts fall out of the bottom of the kitchen rolls when you pull out a divider. For the openings I took one of the dividers (see above in the picture on the right), held it to the bottom end and circled the shape. This way all three openings get an identical shape.
Now cut out the openings and spray the three kitchen rolls and the lid with gold spray paint on all sides.
2. Craft the Advent Calendar Case
Then I glued a border around the top edge of the kitchen rolls with the dark red satin ribbon.
Now pin the three kitchen rolls back together with paper clips so that the slits face outwards and glue them together at the top and bottom with the hot glue gun.
Finally, place the golden lid on top of the three kitchen rolls and close them.
3. Make the Dividers and Stick Numbers on Them
Now only the numbered dividers are missing. To attach the numbers, punch a small hole in the centre of the front of each divider – this is best done with revolving punch pliers.
Now cut 24 3.5 cm long pieces of red satin ribbon and place the wooden numbers ready.
Simply thread the ribbon through the hole and use the hot glue gun to stick it to the back of the wooden number.
Then place the DIY Advent calendar on the lid, fill each tube with surprises 24, 23 and 22 and slide the corresponding dividers into kitchen roll 1, 2 and 3. Now come the next 3 gifts for day 21, 20 and 19 etc.
It is important to keep to this order as the dividers are pulled out at the bottom first and the presents tumble out at the bottom.
The kitchen roll Advent calendar from below with the openings
There are more instructions for DIY Advent calendars at Greatime! For example, the DIY House of Santa and a stackable origami Advent calendar.
While you’re here, have a look through our Christmas ideas or our best activities with kids. 🙂
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*There are affiliate links in this article. This means that if you buy a product via such a link, Greatime may receive a small commission without the product becoming more expensive.