An Advent Calendar with Hallmark Itty Bittys

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here again? Well, it's still a little way off, but it will be here before you know it, trust me.

I'm not usually the best at being organized for Christmas far in advance, but this year with a little help from Hallmark Gold Crown I'm getting a jump on this whole Christmas thing and starting my preparations early.

Today I'm sharing a DIY for an advent calendar featuring Itty Bittys from Hallmark. These tiny stuffies are the perfect surprise for an advent calendar and help make counting down the days until Christmas a little more fun. Itty Bittys come in a range of beloved characters including Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Frozen, Mickey Mouse, Peanuts, Muppets and Rainbow Brite (she's back!). My girls are huge fans of Peanuts so I chose Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Snoopy as treats to go in the advent calendar. Lola, like lots of little girls, is also kind of obsessed with Frozen, so I had to add Elsa, Anna and Olaf to the mix as well. If I was making the advent calendar for myself it would've been filled with Muppets. As a small child I wanted to grow up to be a frog so I could marry Kermit! Ok, that's a story for a different day...

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It's no secret. I take a LOT of photos. My trusty camera is almost always by my side and for those moments when it's not, my iPhone is always ready to snap a shot. Those iPhone shots inevitably end up on Instagram, then Facebook, then Twitter, then maybe my blog...

While those iPhone shots tend not to be as high quality as the photos taken with my real camera, they often end up becoming my favourites. They're usually more candid and capture brief moments in time when I wasn't actually planning on taking a photo. Plus the right Instagram filter can make a big difference.

While my photos may be everywhere digitally, I don't really have that many printed photos in my home. The era of digital photography has all but brought an end to that. There's no need for bulky photo albums filling up book shelves or shoe boxes of photos stashed away in cupboards. Whenever I want to see my photos I can just look on my computer, iPad or phone. While I love the convenience of digital photography and the easy, space saving storage I've got to admit that I do miss having printed photos around. Not albums and albums worth mind you, just the special photos that make me smile.

That's where Social Print Studio's Printstagram comes in handy. Printstagram offers various high quality printing options for your Instagram photos including archival quality prints, mini books, stickers, posters and greeting cards. The Social Print Shop has a great range of display options for your printed photos. I quite like the concrete photo block shown below.

What are we doing today?

What are we doing today? These are usually the first words that Ava comes out with each morning. This is usually repeated again a few times throughout the day when Ava forgets what I've told her we have planned!


About a year ago I decided to create a "calendar" for Ava to show the day of the week and the activities that we have planned for the day. Every morning when Ava asks what we will be doing we go to her calendar and put up the name of the day and the relevant activity.


The calendar consists of a laminated sheet with the words "Today is" and "Today I will". Underneath these two lines are velcro dots to attach the name of the day and the name of the activity. I added two lines of velcro dots for the activity cards for busy days. 
Ava drew decorative borders around the edges of the sheet and added a happy sun :)

The calendar in use