Nisha George » Projects

Winter Crafts: DIY Advent Tree

negeorge — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:41:31 +0000

Please welcome guest author Kavitha George, who also happens to be my favorite little sister! I know it’s a little past the Christmas season now, but maybe you can get a head start on Christmas decorating for this December… ~Nisha

I came across a DIY Advent Tree project in Sunset magazine during the holidays. My sister refused to buy me the generic advent calendar at Trader Joe’s citing the low quality chocolate that was included and the fact I was capable to make my own advent tree craft. So, I made a fantastic alternative by adapting the Sunset magazine project. This is an excellent craft for children as well as adults around Christmas time. Add some of your favorite chocolate or a small toy for something to look forward to every morning in December.

Materials:

1 tall vase
10 thin winter branches (with buds) approximately 3 ft. in length
1 quart of small pebbles
25 pieces of assorted card stock or small coin/favor envelopes
25 8-in pieces of string or yarn
pencil
scissors
single hole punch
25 pieces of assorted candies, chocolates or small toys
25 Christmas ornaments in a bowl

Procedure:

1. If you are using purchased envelopes, you can simply label them by hand, 1-25. Or, you can adjust the paper setting on your printer and computer and print out the small envelopes labeled with numbers 1-25.

2. If you are using card stock, find an envelope template online to print out that will fit your candy or toys. I used this one from How About Orange. Adjust the paper size dimensions under your “paper format” menu in your word document application and printer settings to fit the size of your cardstock. Print a few test templates to determine how big you need the envelopes and adjust the size of the template as necessary.

3. Once you have settled on a size that works well, copy and paste the envelope template on to 25 different blank pages in your word document. Next comes the tricky part. Create a text box centered over the blank space on the envelope template (where, when folded, will form the flat front of the envelope) for each of the 25 envelopes. In this text box, label each envelope with the numbers 1-25 using a font of your choice. Bold fonts tend to look better on the finished product. This is how mine turned out.

3. Print all the envelopes out and construct them.

4. Cut the string into 25 8-inch pieces.

5. Punch a single hole 1-2 cm below the top edge of each envelope, centered over the printed number. Thread one string through the punched hole and knot it, creating a loop on which to hang each envelope.

6. In each envelope, place a candy or small toy.

7. Arrange the branches in the vase, then pour the pebbles into it to anchor the sticks.

8. Hang each envelope above the buds of the branches so they don’t slide down. It’s up to you, but I like arranging them out of order so you have to search for each envelope on its particular day.

9. Each day preceding the 25th of December, take down the respective envelope and replace it with a Christmas ornament. I like putting a decorative bowl next to the advent tree filled with 25 ornaments beforehand for easy access and extra decoration. Store the envelopes for next year. Enjoy your daily treats!

Mailbox: Solution to Soggy Mail

negeorge — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:24:08 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I prefer my mail dry. It helps with the readability. My house comes with a mail slot in the door that was poorly designed. The entry slot on the outside of the house leads to a vertical chute with an exit slot at the bottom on the inside wall. So the mail has to pass two 90 degree bends before reaching its destination: our floor. Unfortunately the mailman can’t always get all the letters and magazines past both bends, so half of the mail ends up jammed in the slot and the other half is left hanging outside, exposed to the elements. I am only leasing this place, so it’s not worth it to knock out the wall and make a proper mail slot. I decided to utilize the railing along the entryway landing and stairs and hang a mailbox. Not a super technical or novel idea, but it was still fun to make!

Supplies:

mailbox (standard front-door with the red flag works well)
(4) 1-1/2″ u-bolts w/ nuts & rectangular washers
rubber washers (or a sheet of rubber to cut your own)
3/8″ wide rubber foam weather seal
heavy duty duct tape
scissors
exacto knife
2 crescent wrenches

1. I used 2 u-bolts to hang the mailbox from the railing. I needed to wrap the u-bolts with something so mailbox wouldn’t slide around and keep the mailbox level and not hang tilted out from the railing. First, I wrapped the u-bolts very tightly with the weather seal. It was easiest to do this with thin weather seal rather than thick or wide weather seal. Wrap slowly to make sure the seal is as tight as possible and layer about 3 times (depending on the thickness of your railing). Repeat on 1 more u-bolt.

2. Wrap both the u-bolts with a few layers of duct tape so it can withstand getting wet without getting the weather seal underneath completely soggy.

3. If you can’t find rubber washers snug enough to fit around the u-bolt legs, then cut out some from the sheet of rubber. I cut mine to be about 1in in outer diameter (I used a spare wooden dowel as a template).

4. Assemble the u-bolts together. In order from left to right: u-bolt, nut, metal rectangular washers, rubber washer, rubber washer, metal rectangular washer, nut. The mailbox wall will fit inbetween the rubber washers.

5. The mailbox was easiest to hang by its long side on the railing. Drill 2 sets of holes into the mailbox at 1/3L and 2/3L of the total mailbox length(L). Both sets of holes should sit at 1/2H of the total mailbox height (H). The holes should be drilled to fit the u-bolts. Make sure to measure the railing to confirm the u-bolts will be able to hang 1/3L apart. If not, adjust the distance to space the u-bolts as evenly as possible.

6. Assemble the mailbox on the railing. The u-bolt, nut, rectangular metal washer and 1 set of rubber washers should be on the outside.

7. The other set of rubber washers, rectangular metal washers and nuts should be on the inside.

8. Tighten the nuts against each other with the wrenches so that there is a really tight seal between the rubber washers and the mailbox. This will prevent the mailbox from getting rusted out where the u-bolts go through.

Voila! You now have a mailbox that will keep your mail nice and dry! Enjoy your reading – smudge and wrinkle free!