DIY Upcycled Toilet Roll Advent Calendar Elves

Unfortunately my crafty advent calendar wreath from last year didn’t join the big international move, fortunately toilet rolls are fairly easy to stockpile and I had another festive idea just waiting to be created!

Grab your kiddo + a bunch of scraps and discover how easy it is to whip up 24 DIY Upcycled Toilet Roll Advent Calendar Elves in time for December 1st!

Grab 24 toilet rolls, a large piece of cardboard and a load of festive scraps.

Spend the evening with your munchkin painting all of the toilet rolls.

Once dry give each roll a face (& personality) as well as a number from 1 – 24. Take a few more minutes and paint that piece of cardboard white.

Chop out 24 rectangles measuring approx. 16cm x 10cm for the elf hats.

Old socks are an awesome alternative to creating hats from scratch.

(I so wish I would have included my hoarded baby sock stash in one of the boxes that got shipped over.)

2 hats from one ankle sock is pretty nifty!

Here’s how to create the hats if you don’t have a bunch of socks:

1. Select a fabric scrap that compliments your elf.  2. Glue one end to the back of the head.  3. Loosely wrap the fabric around the front of the head & glue the end in place at the back.  4. Tie the top of the fabric closed.

*Only glue the ends of the fabric at the back so the hat can be pull up at the front to reveal the treat inside* 

Create hats for all 24 elves (whew!) and embellish with whatever bits you have on hand.

Glue all of the elves to the cardboard in a random order.

Surround the elves with some cottony snow.

Stick on some fun ornaments.

Slip the hats off the front of the elves heads and pop all of your advent goodies inside then slide the hats back on.

Definitely kid approved!

The best part?

You can personalize the contents to suit whomever is opening the calendar + reuse it year after year!

Are you upcycling an advent calendar this year?