This year for Christmas I decided to do something really fun for my 6 year old niece! I am usually pretty broke, but just like her birthday, I wanted to leave her with that lasting impression of, "Wow, I have the best aunt"! Hahaha! I shop at Dollar Tree, where everything is $1...or sometimes two for $1! For her birthday I filled a gift bag for only $12. She got 12 different things and her smile got bigger and her voice more excited as the gifts kept coming out of the bag. It was like she was a young Mary Poppins. I wanted to do something similar for Christmas! What better way than an advent calendar? She gets 25+ gifts! I shopped at Dollar Tree and only spent $10 on her gifts. I collected toilet paper and paper towels rolls from our home and my sisters to hold the gifts. I used left over tissue paper, scrapbook paper and the various glues we had lying around. I just so happened to have an old box from a previous gift I had received to be the backing. So I really only spent the $10 on her gifts. :)
I managed to get Christmas puppy and kitten stickers (which I cut out separately so they fit), plastic rings, clay ornaments, Starburst, girly erasers, hair ties, a Doc McStuffins washcloth, a windup walking penguin, a package of temporary tattoos, and then added my
diy lip balms and a homemade bracelet.
First I collected the paper rolls! I suggest bringing one to the store with you to make sure the gifts fit inside! I forgot to, but still did pretty good! I didn't have enough, so I cut few to make them shorter. My tree is set up to where the numbers are in a random order. I just made sure that smaller gifts went in the shorter tubes! Other materials I used where Christmas scrapbook paper (to wrap the tubes, used 6 different mostly green patterns), scissors, a pen, yellow card stock (for the star topper), tissue paper (to cover the end of the tubes), a hot glue gun (to glue tubes together), an extra strength glue stick (to put paper on the tubes), and regular white glue (to secure the tissue paper).
So I cut the scrapbook paper into fourths. Then I covered each piece in the extra strength glue stick and rolled it onto the paper roll. This was the longest step! It took me about an hour. lol You can also just use paint or leave them plain though. After the roll was wrapped, I cut off the excess paper on the ends.
After all the tubes were wrapped, I started cutting out squares of tissue paper and then adding the numbers to them. At this point I realized that one item did not fit in the tubes! So I left out a number and wrapped the little gift separately so it looked like a gift under the tree. :) To secure the tissue paper to the ends of the tubes, I used a little bit of the regular white glue around the edges of one end and lightly pressed the tissue paper to the glue. I tried my best to keep the numbers centered.
Once all the tubes were covered, I used the hot glue gun to glue the bottoms/sides together in a Christmas tree shape! When turned around, I could see the numbers through the tissue paper. That made it easier to spread out the gifts evenly so she wouldn't be getting too many of the same kind of gift really close together.
I stuffed everything in the back and then carefully adhered it to a big box (one side cut off) that I had lying around that another gift came in. lol This way nothing could fall out! I also have seen people just trace and cut a piece of cardboard to fit the back or use felt. :) I glued a cut out star above the tree and then wrote Merry Christmas and decorated with more drawn starts. I taped the separately wrapped washcloth to the base of the box to look like a present under the tree. This tree took me about 3 hours to complete!
I pinned lots of ideas on Pinterest!
Here are some other cool ideas that I found that also helped to inspire me when I planned on this project!
Figure one. The life saving cabinet. As you can see, it's pretty full! Before this bad boy was attached to the wall, most of this stuff was shoved into a drawer in my vanity! It was nearly impossible to find anything and it looked terrible. We purchased this at Home Depot. I want to say this one was around $100. We had the option of some cheaper ones, but this one matched the new vanity we had installed a year prior. There were a few options between $60 and $80 too. To better organize some of the things inside, I have a little white plastic container bought from Dollar Tree. I also have some pop-up paper organizers that I bought very cheap on Ebay. I believe they came from Korea. I am looking for a better method now though! My lip products and mascara and eyeliner collections have tripled in size since I bought them. They are bursting at the seams. lol So, in this cabinet we have some various things at the top. It's kind of the miscellaneous shelf. There are cotton balls and makeup sponges, my collection of face masks, my moisturizers and lotions, nail polish remover and my makeup remover wipes. In the middle shelf, I have some bigger eyeshadow palettes and the plastic container is full of smaller palletes that I don't use as often. I'll get to where I put the other ones soon. ;) There are also a few single shadows there as well. In the bottom shelf that is left exposed after the doors are closed, I have my small fragrance collection, my eyeliners and mascaras in the first paper organizer and then my lipsticks and glosses in the second one. On the far right there are some things that don't fit anywhere either. Some lip products, a couple powders and false lashes.
Moving down and onto the vanity, I have this little organizer with drawers. I stole it from the craft room! It used to have pens and markers inside. I thought it was better suited to hold my makeup. lol After this picture was taken I added a few more things, but I'll explain. :) At the top I have my primers, concealers and my go to eyeliner pencil. I also have a foundation and BB cream there. My eyelash curler is always on the far right and and ready to go too! In the area under the pop up lid, I put the powders I use most often. There is also a tiny blush there now. The first drawer is where I keep all of my brushes! In the second drawer I have all of the small eyeshadow palettes that I use most often. There are 6 small palettes inside there at the moment... I was surprised how much I could fit into this little drawer! In the last drawer I have my collection of cream shadow pencils and pots. After the picture was taken, I added 3 different bronzers on one side. They still all fit in there rather nicely. We are just going to ignore the bracelet and the triple antibiotic cream I left on top. That is no way to stay organized! I love this little drawer container because it fit perfectly on the edge of the vanity. It's right there when I need everything. Very little hassle when I am looking for things.
Over to the medicine cabinet! I don't own very many hair styling products or meds... or else there might be more to look at. lol At the bottom I have my hairspray, mousse, pot of q-tips and the mouth wash has been swapped out for a dry shampoo. The next one up has a random collection of things, like an anti-frizz hair cream, band-aids, and floss! Up top is an old kabuki and powder foundation that don't have a place among my other makeup. lol On the knob, I hang some necklaces and headbands that I don't want to get tangled up in where they usually are stored. This is probably the least interesting part of my bathroom... This area doesn't seem to have any sort of direction.
On the back of my door is this neat jewelry organizer that I bought for $8 at Big Lots. It has 12 small open pockets at the top and 3 long zipper pockets at the bottom. This is where I put most of my "costume" jewelry. If I didn't have this... I have no idea where all of this would be right now. It scares me to think about it!! I store many different bracelets and rings in the top pockets and then long necklaces in the bottom ones. I also hang some of my sunglasses off the top. They are much better protected here. I've had the dogs eat them before. lol
This little earring tree is now located safely on top of the dresser in my closet. I can't tell you how many times it has been knocked over onto the floor or into the sink. If only I had more space on my vanity. At least the poor thing is safe now! I really do enjoy it though. It keeps all my earrings in clear view. I also like that I can put things in the little dish at the base of the tree. My mom bought this for me as a gift for Christmas a few years back. I believe it was around $10 at Family Dollar. :)
Top drawer of the vanity! This is where all of my hair accessories live. There are two more of the plastic Dollar Tree containers in here. I have hair ties in the bottom one and then some of my hair clips/barrettes in the top one. The rest of the space is occupied by my many headbands and hair bows! This drawer can be hard to keep organized. The headbands can be a pain! I'm not sure I have any other way to store them at the moment, but Pinterest is always full of creative ideas.
The bottom vanity drawer is where all of my nail products go. Two more Dollar Tree plastic containers hold my mini and standard sized polishes, as well as my detail brushes and other little nail accessories. My clippers, files and all that jazz are here too. :) Right now I have so many polishes that they don't fit inside the container anymore. Something else I have to work on... bigger container! lol I like just pulling them right out of the drawer and sorting through to pick my colors. I can bring them up onto the counter and see them better in the light. Plus I won't have to be hurting my back by bending over and trying to dig into the drawer.
Last, but not least... under the sink. I have a huge makeup palette, travel makeup bags, bath stuff, a nail dryer, hair dryer, flat iron... all the big stuff I don't want to look at on a daily basis! There isn't a whole lot of room, so I added a little basket at the bottom to better organize the small things. I have some bath salts, spare razors and similar things there. The bigger things are stacked as nicely as possible. My hair styling tools are located in the back right corner. There is a taller cube container from the Dollar Tree that they sit inside of. That keep the cords from getting tangled and them from getting lost in there!
