Spoonflower/Moo of advent calendars?

October 29, 2017 8:59 AM

An art advent calendar is basically just two large pieces of printed card stock glued together, one of which has strategic cuts to make little door/window openings when folded out. Is there an online print-your-own company that either does advent calendars or _could_ do advent calendars?

I have been thinking about making my own advent calendar for _years_, and it would even be fun to do one collaboratively. However, I've not yet found an easy way to accomplish this.

Searching for [DIY advent calendar] gets a lot of kid-friendly craft projects involving little containers you can fill. Etsy has big wooden ones made by carpenters that, again, can be filled with stuff, but they're expensive and heavy and not what I'm looking for.

I just want to put together something that's basically cool pictures, sayings, poems, art -- maybe think of it as page-a-day calendar content -- but with only 24-25 items. Then get it printed in cardboard advent calendar form so that a recipient gets to open little flaps and see the surprise inside.

Is there a way to do this currently? Can anybody point me to a vendor?

posted by amtho to Grab Bag (11 answers total)

Just a clarification: are you married to the format of 2 pieces of cardboard glued together with windows?
posted by xyzzy at 10:54 AM on October 29, 2017

As you did, I googled DIY advent calendar.

If you do the paper only calendar, mark the dates on the sheet that will not be cut, maybe use masking tape. Lay a sheet of tracing paper over it and draw the openings on the tracing paper, making an impression on the backing paper. Then draw again on the top sheet, again hard enough to make an impression. The impression makes it easier to cut with an exacto knife.

Now I'm inspired, maybe, to make on for my neice's kids.
posted by theora55 at 11:05 AM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

For the top layer, assuming use of something like card stock, one can make a series of nicely spaced holes for the doors at any arbitrary orientation and spacing with a sewing machine.
posted by Mitheral at 12:17 PM on October 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think I'd take a large sheet of something very stiff like water color paper, decide where I wanted the openings, score the fold lines with an empty ballpoint pen/stylus, use an Xacto knife to slice the cut lines and put a small wafer seal over each one to keep it closed. Glue it to a backing sheet of matte board on which you've already glued corresponding pictures. Decorate the front with watercolors or colored pencils. You can get all precise with a t-square, ruler and a triangle or you can wing it and get funky.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:59 PM on October 29, 2017

I've made my own via cut-and-paste, but if you want to avoid the craft route, Google provides this option.
posted by metasarah at 3:23 PM on October 29, 2017

Response by poster: I'm not married to a particular format, but I want to spend my time finding and/or making art to print for the dates, not constructing the windows/doors by hand or cutting things out. Ideally, I could create the art and lay it out one time, then create several copies to share.

If anyone wants to help...
posted by amtho at 6:01 PM on October 29, 2017

Response by poster: metasarah: You found one! Thanks! I think I want more control over the front of the design and the layout, and the price point is really designed for one person to make one at a time (no volume discount, it looks like).

I guess I'd be happy if I could find a printing company that would also make door-like cuts precisely, as directed. Maybe a laser cut? But with embossing for the "hinges" placed appropriately? Then I could print some of those, and print sheets to put behind, and then glue the two together somehow.

I guess I'd want 4-10 copies?
posted by amtho at 6:06 PM on October 29, 2017

What you want is die cutting. Any decent printer would be able to arrange that for you but I doubt it would be worth it for so few. But definitely call a few places. Depending on your budget, you very well might be able to do this with a Cricut cutting machine. You could look around for Cricut projects and see if someone has already done this and find a pattern.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:26 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Etsy is your best option as this sounds like a print/Silhouette type job. This vendor has something close to what you want and might give you a volume discount if you ask them for a reasonable number of orders. You can also try the Etsy alchemy thing where you make a request and see who can fulfil it.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:31 AM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

I googled 'personalised advent calendar' and it seems like UK-based companies Pixum and Jessops both do the thing you're looking for. The prices seem reasonable, but shipping may be an issue - try running the same search in your own location, perhaps?
posted by Acheman at 8:48 AM on October 30, 2017

My public library has a Cricut machine, so yours may, too -- or a maker space, or the local high school.

Then you would be "printing" three-sided openings in a sheet of cardstock, which is pretty easy for one of those devices.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:14 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]