DIY Shopkins Advent Calendar

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Can you believe that the first day of December is next week?!?! Time goes by so quickly! One of my favorite things about December is counting down to Christmas with an advent calendar. I loved this ritual as a child and it’s one that I enjoy just as much as an adult. This year, I have a tea advent calendar from DAVIDsTEA and my husband has a beer advent calendar.  I asked my kids what kind of advent calendar they wanted, their response was immediate– “A Shopkins Advent Calendar!” I wasn’t able to find one (I don’t think they make them) so I decided to DIY one for each of the kids myself. 

Before we get started with the DIY, a few notes on materials:

Shopkins: 

During a recent Costco trip, I noticed that they had a 32 piece Shopkins set for $19.99. I had planned on buying each of them one for Christmas anyways, and thought they’d get more enjoyment out of them by receiving one a day instead of all of them on Christmas Day. If you don’t have a Costco near you, or $19.99 is too high for your advent calendar budget (I looked at is as a Christmas present and advent calendar in one) you can mix Shopkins with chocolate or other small toys. 

For the calendar: 

A mini muffin tin has 24 slots on it and  seemed like it would be the perfect size for Shopkins to fit into. I ran into a bit of trouble when trying to figure out how to get the paper numbers to fit on top. My first thought was double sided tape, but since the muffin tin was nonstick the tape wouldn’t stick to it. The same thing went for glue from my hot glue gun. It slid right off. 

I ended up going with magnet sheets. I would suggest that you check that the magnets stick to the muffin tin before purchasing. I would also suggest that you hit up a thrift store and buy an old mini muffin tin. I think most older tins don’t have as much “non-stick” power and are a bit more roughed up so magnets and tape/glue might stick to them better. 

For the numbers:

I used magnets, circles cut from Christmas themed scrapbooking paper and smaller circles with the numbers written on them. I cut/wrote all of these using my Cricut and then stuck them together using a glue stick (I’ve included the files to download below). If you don’t have a Cricut you could easily cut the circles with scissors and then write the numbers on by hand. You could also buy Christmas themed printable scrapbook pages from Etsy and then print your own Christmas design onto the magnets, instead of gluing scrapbook paper to your magnetic sheet. 

Ready to make a DIY Shopkins Advent Calendar of your own? Read on for instructions!

DIY Shopkins Advent Calendar

Materials I Used:

-24 Shopkins

-1 mini muffin tin

-2 sheets of magnetic paper cut into circles a smidgen bigger than the holes for your muffin tin

–Christmas themed scrapbook paper (My paper was 6″X6″and I cut 5 circles from each, so I used 5 sheets for 1 calendar)

-1 sheet of coordinating cardstock for putting numbers on

-Glue stick

–Pen for writing numbers

-Optional: Cricut (I used my Cricut Explore Air 2) and Cricut Large Circles file and Small Numbered Circles files. If you don’t have a Cricut use scissors. (Access large circles file here and small circles with numbers here) 

-Optional: Drill and ribbon if you would like to hang your advent calendar on the wall.

Directions:

Step 1: Cut out 24 large circles from your magnetic sheets, 24 large circles from your Christmas themed scrapbooking paper and 24 small number circles from your plain coordinating paper. 

Step 2: Using a glue-stick, glue the Christmas themed cardstock circles to the magnetic circles, then glue the small numbered circles on top of those. 

Step 3: Drill 2 holes at the top of the muffin tin. Tie ribbon through the holes to make a loop to hang your advent calendar with. 

Step 4: Put a Shopkins in each hole of the muffin tin then cover with your numbers. Give to your child and watch them enjoy counting down to Christmas with a Shopkins each day! 

Tell me… Have you ever made your own advent calendar? Do you use an advent calendar each year? What kind of advent calendar do you wish you had?

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