Pottery Barn knock off

I had so much felt lying around from little man's quiet book that this was the perfect project. While I stole the idea from Pottery Barn, I am so excited to have made this myself. I never thought about having an advent calendar for Halloween!
It took me longer than I expected but I am so happy with how it turned out. It took a couple nap times. I couldn't work on it when little man was awake because he's been super clingy since we got back from New York so he wants me to hold him. Or he just wants me to pick him up so he can reach the table and touch all my stuff. I'm so proud of myself for finishing well in time for October 1st! Now I can move onto more Halloween projects! Yippee!



I usually do most my projects during nap time, but I finished this off one night and how did I do it you asked? When Ian discovered I left the guest bathroom open which meant he had full reign of the toilet paper. And boy did he have fun!

Ok back to the project...
I have been scanning the internet for advent calendars for Halloween. I didn't even know they existed, Pottery Barn has some amazing ones that I love but would never feel good about spending $60, and never would. So I decided to make my own knock off Pottery Barn calendar!

Supplies:

• Felt glue
• Rotary cutter or scissors (I found that a rotary cutter works best, but scissors will do.)
• 1 yard of orange felt
• 1 yard of black felt
• 2 pkgs large ric rak- (I used green, but any Halloween color will do)
  
• Various colors of craft foam with sticky backs (purple, lime green, yellow, black, red, white)
• Halloween craft foamies- found at JoAnns
• Dowel rod
• Halloween ribbon
• Alphabet/Number stencils 1″-2″

Assembly:

1. The first thing you want to do is cut 35 4″ wide x 3 1/2″squares. I cut out a square from a cereal box.
2. Then cut your black felt 44″ long x 25″ wide.
3. Arrange the 35 squares so that you have 7 down and 5 across. If you want to leave room at the bottom to have your family name monogrammed, leave it. Just make it look like it’s even. Leave room on the sides, top, and bottom for the ric rac.
4. Pin and then sew the squares.
5. I used my Cricut to cut out my letters and numbers and traced them onto felt. I didn't use sticky back felt because I had so much felt I didn't want to buy more. They cut out easy as well.
   
6. Arrange your foam or felt numbers and Halloween craft foamies on each square. I used a little felt glue on each just to make sure they stay on.
7. Arrange the title at the top.
   
8. Sew a pocket at the top for your dowel rod to go through, tie some ribbon on the rod. You have your own version of a very pricey advent calendar.

You can either put something in each pocket or attach a string with some Halloween "mascot" and move it from pocket to pocket.