Advent Carousel Hack

I'm sure you've seen these online or in a popular craft store. I really wanted one so I made my own. You can get the FREE pattern in the template section here. Making the boxes is not a hard thing since I've been making boxes for years in all sizes and flavors. The hard part is saving up enough cereal and pet food boxes to make 25 little houses. I had to resort to buying some poster board even though I had a pretty good stash of card on hand. This is a very long post!!!

My biggest project is a Christmas Advent Carousel made with houses and inspired by the Hobby Lobby wooden advent project that many people cannot find because it sells out quick or is out of their reach budget wise. I've decided to make my own version. So I sat down and calculated the size I need to make based on two basic patterns I combined, redrew and enlarged for the little houses I wanted.

FIVE LAYERS

For the rotating levels, I did the math so you don't have to. Getting each part done so it looks like I have a plan. This is a learn as you go and based on the size of my houses which are 2-3/8" wide at the bottom. Five levels! I lost my protractor so I had to print one out. Working on the bottom level with 9 houses, I made a 14" diameter circle and divided it in ninths and will put a house every 40 degrees close to the edge. I need to get some foam core board next shopping trip. Here's the dimension of all the levels:

Bottom level - 9 houses, 14" diameter circle, placement 40°

2nd level - 7 houses, 12" diameter, placement 51.4285714° (51 ½° is close enough)

3rd level - 5 houses, 9 ½" diameter, placement 72°

4th level - 3 houses, 7 ¾" diameter, placement 120°

Top level - 1 house, 5" in diameter, placement center

I cut my templates out of only two pieces of poster board but the levels are not cut out in the middle, unless you want to cut a small hole in the center for running the light strand through on the top four layers. Other than that they are complete circles. I think I am going to make cylinders to help support mine through the center because the houses are lightweight, I don't want to crush them. I made my templates to save paper. You could probably just cut your circles right on the foam core board though and mark the degrees on it. 

HOUSE SUPPLIES You're going to need a lot of cardboard. I had some saved up because I make a lot of stuff using it. I'm still going to need some more to finish this project. You could just use poster board if that's all you can get and just double it up or glue paper to the inside and outside. That will make it stronger but they don't have to be as sturdy as wood because the weight of the upper levels are not going to rest on them anyway. Still, you want them to last from year to year without getting crushed. So using my templates, I am ready to cut out some more pieces.

I make the house numbers from 4 ½ cm x 4 cm squares and glue half round 6mm plastic pearls on them. I use a Spectrum Noir alcohol ink marker #BG5 to hand draw my numbers on.

Measure the front and sides of your box to get a pattern for your paper pieces if you cover them with paper. I got these paper patterns from BlossomPaperArt on Etsy and printed mine out. THE ROOFTOPS You can start on these right away. You will need 25 of them at 2 ½" x 4" scored down the middle. I know I'm not consistent. I use both metric and American standard measurements. Sometimes you need to be more accurate so I switch to metric but everybody has a ruler with both, right? 

I use buffalo snow and a clear crystal glitter but you can use what you like. Once you get them all done, you can set them aside for now.

So once the rooftops are out of the way and you've cleaned up all that glitter, we can move on to putting a house or two (or 25) together. First I cut out a container, drawer and back, then score them on the lines for folding.

Two down and only 23 more to go. And that might take a couple of days but after I get at least nine houses made, I'll move on to putting it together bottom layer first.

CUTTING THE PLATFORMS

For me, this is where it all starts to come together. When those little houses get done and positioned on the first layer, you can almost see the whole project coming to life. So using the dimensions I previously gave you draw them out on foam core board and cut them out with a sharp X-acto knife. I wanted to make mine a lot more sturdy so I cut and glued heavy poster board on both sides of them. It helps to keep them from warping if you weight them down with large books until they dry completely. It will also warp if you paint it. You can add as many layers of paper as you want but you don't want to skip adding poster board on both sides. It will make it much stronger.

On the large circle you need to mark nine spots every 40° on the outer edge and place your houses on them evenly spaced. Then you will glue them down.  The smaller layers you can eyeball it but no so much on this one.

Also glue some red and green pony beads to the bottle brush trees. You can get a pack of six little trees in two sizes at the Dollar Tree for cheap. The whole project will take 4 packs of trees and 1 more if you want to put a tree on the top layer. The tall ones need to be positioned closer to the outer edge so the tops don't bump into the layer above. 

It's a little early for Christmas decorations to be out just yet but you can make a lot of what you need to decorate yourself if you have a supply stash like I do. I made tiny wreaths out of some green pipe cleaners I already had. I cut them in half and twist them into a circle about an inch wide. Double them up if yours are the thin ones.

I added little dots of color to them with puffy fabric paint (you could also use beads) and tied tiny bows with 1/8" red ribbon. I hot glued them on the houses.

TIP: Before you glue the trees down you might want to place the second platform on top of the houses and move your taller trees out beyond the edge closer to the front. But you don't want to glue the second layer down until you have your lights positioned for the first layer. 

I think I need about two dozen or so little presents. Yes, you can buy them but they are also fun to make. My theme is red and green so I made most of mine in red and green. I cut little cardboard squares and glued them together with regular glue, then covered with scrapbook paper. I cut strips out of paper for the ribbons and just scrunched and crumpled a square piece for each bow. Easy peasy!

It's really starting to look good now. You could have also cut little windows in the front of your houses if you want. If you change your mind on that you can still do it because your house fronts are part of the drawer. It's up to you how you want to decorate it.

You can punch holes in the backs of the top of the houses to stick the lights in or just put lights wherever you want them. The drawers on the back are cut shorter so you have room for lights. I added a center support to mine. You just cut your cardboard height to the height of your houses if you want to do that instead. I love the rustic color of the cardboard so I'm going to keep it for the supports but you could cover it if you want or don't even use a center support. It's up to you. I also cut strips of paper bag and glue them to the front of the platforms to cover up the styrofoam on the edges.

TIP: Every time you glue or finish adding pieces to a layer you want to weigh it down to try to keep the whole thing flat. Large books on top of each layer works until it dries completely. Then you can add another layer.

At this point I'm already starting to keep my eyes peeled for miniature decorations I can use to fill in the gaps around the trees. I might make a little sleigh out of wooden sticks. I'm also thinking of making some Santas and Snowmen out of beads if I can't find what I want in the store. There is so much to do and so many details to play with! 

WHEW! I'm already tired because this is a lot of work! But it's also a lot of fun if you love to craft. Nothing like DIY,

FINISHING

This is the way I decided to add lights to mine but really you don't have to even add lights if you don't want to. First I had to get all the layers done and I decided to put more support in the centers with cardboard. The first layer is the most time consuming to put together but after that it goes pretty quick. 

Then even though I don't have all my decorations on it yet, I hot glued all the layers together. Just make sure you weigh it down while the glue sets because foam core board loves to buckle with glue or paint.

TIP: It's a lot easier to add your lights behind the houses and around the top if you leave a little room between the supports and houses and don't hot glue the house tops to the layers. I actually had to poke holes and run my lights through the backs of the house containers on the bottom two levels and it was not fun!

I wanted to be able to access my lights from the outside and I wanted to hide the switches. I thought about cutting a box in the bottom of the first base level but I didn't want to have to pick the whole thing up to turn it on. So I got a pack of 6 fairy lights for cheap on Amazon and it only took 2 sets to light it up. The battery pack is about the same size as a little present so I'm going to disguise them and make present covers for them.

I just ran the lights around the outside top and some of the bottom edges of the center supports. Now all I have to do is finish decorating it. It will look great lit up at night. But it was not about the lights for me. I just love the look of the whole thing!

I also added a 12" turn table with hot glue. I got two of these cheap on Amazon for about 6 bucks. They are plastic but you don't need anything heavy duty for this project.

And the batteries are covered with presents that lift off so I can change the batteries when needed. I also added some pinecone sprigs that I already had in my stash. I also made a little sleigh for the top but if I find a better idea, I'll use it.

And I have to add some buffalo snow to the layers when I get everything glued in. Can you tell where the batteries are hidden?  All I have to do to turn on the lights is squeeze the presents!

There are finished photos in the gallery section!