Here, as promised are a few tips for you to make your own bucket advent garland. There is still time to make yours, as of course, there is always time for chocolate.
You need:
24 buckets. mine are from IKEA, measuring 6cms diameter and didn't have handles.
string/ribbons/twine: to make handles, decorate the top of each bucket and to hang.
florists silver wire to strengthen the twine (my personal choice)
24 pegs - clothes wooden pegs are great. leave plain or decorate.
24 numbers either written or cutout or printed off onto card. I used white card.
24 coloured stars or jewels to add to the number cards
24 small goody/treat sized chocolates!
Garlands available in various colours and lengths. I used 3 down my hallway.
How I made my advent bucket garland.
1. Paint 24 pegs and leave to dry. I used silver, gold, green and red and painted 6 in each colour.
2. Tie string/ribbon/twine around the top edge of your buckets to help begin to make your handles. I then threaded silver wire through and twisted it to hold in place on one side. Thread through a small piece of twine/string/ribbon and tie in a knot on the same side, 15 cms should suffice. This is the first part of your handle. Twist the wire around the string and take the handle over the bucket and thread, twist and tie the wire and string. The bucket handle is now secure and will stay in position.
You might be lucky enough to have found buckets with handles, or to have one of those super crocodile crafting gadgets to simple punch a hole on each side of your bucket.
3. Thread and tie some ribbon through each bucket handle. I looped ribbon and tied it before looping through the handles. You will need these loops to thread your buckets into your garland swag, so the buckets hang facing the front.
I used white ribbon for a wintry look.
4. Thread and tie ribbon in bows around the top edge of the buckets to finish them off nicely. I used a mixture of white, green, red and silver ribbon and raffia.
5. If you painted your pegs, you might like to add glitter for some extra sparkle. I used red, green, silver, gold and used glitter glue in easy squeezable tubes from the early learning centre, a children's store. Crafting stores would sell similar too.
6. make your 24 numbers on card. You could cut out numbers from magazines, draw your own, paint, print off. I used a mixture of various fonts and used various green and red shades. I also did some digits and some numbers as words for fun.
Add jewels or stars or snowflakes to one corner of each number.
7. Hang your buckets onto string or ribbon. I hung 3 swags with 8 buckets on each, so that it wasn't too heavy on my tiny nails in the wall! Add your garland to decorate your swag. I used 3 swags that have pearl and glass effect beads on. Greenery or red berry swags would look great too. Just twist the swag in a few places so that the garland hangs over the string.
8. Peg the numbers either in place onto each bucket, or onto the swag garland directly above each bucket. I put the numbers in a random order, but you can do it in numerical order if you wish to help younger ones with some ordering numbers!
9. Add chocolate and or other gifts to each bucket. You could add an encouragement, a verse, a challenge to do each day or some coins or a small gift, or a small ornament to add to your tree each day...
Enjoy!
We each decorated these wooden flowers photo frames I spotted. We used metallic paints and then used deco pens and gems for the finishing touches.
There was plenty of time for cake, of course. I had a go at making some tiers. My first attempt. The bottom tier is white chocolate cake with white chocolate butter cream icing. The top 2 tiers are polystyrene dummy cakes! I am having a trail at this balancing art as I am doing my niece's wedding cake in June! she wants fresh flowers round each tier, so I thought I would use some pretty Easter colours for this one.
I used a cupcake filled with a few mini eggs and a chick with some raffia for a nest as a rather cute cake topper. Happy Birthday Abbie!
I made Easter cards too! A bit like the Easter bunnies I made, they apparently could have been done by a 3 year old!
They are fun and cute though and set our Easter table off nicely filled with chicks and mini chocolate eggs. My last Easter decoration is my Easter tree! It is a bit wonky in the glass vase! I tried stuffing oasis in the bottom and adding raffia around the edges and that was when I realised it was my wonky Easter Tree. I placed a few mini chicks in the nest effect and hung my Easter decorations on the heart branch I picked up from the garden centre this week. I added a glass painted egg, a bird, a fairy, a heart and a hen and a beautiful embroidered felt egg.I wish I could say that I had made it myself but I bought it. I love it. I love it all. My very own wonky Easter tree.
Have an Eggstra Special Easter!
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