How to Make an Amazing DIY Puzzle Advent Calendar | Tutorial

Making your own DIY puzzle Advent calendar is easy! In this tutorial you’ll find everything you need to quickly make a super beautiful advent calendar, including an ingenious, sustainable DIY hanging system.

The lovingly designed heart of the puzzle Advent calendar are 24 puzzle cards with crafty joke questions, tricky cryptograms, crosswords of varying difficulty, word puzzles and word puzzles. The puzzles are simply printed out, rolled up and fixed with pretty wooden pegs with Advent calendar numbers and hung on a decorative wooden ladder in the shape of a Christmas tree.

You can make this super quick and easy last minute puzzle Advent calendar yourself in around 20 minutes if you skim the Advent calendar puzzles for adults here and see if you like them and download and print out the puzzle cards. Simply buy a ready-made decorative fir tree ladder and Advent calendar numbers with clips on the internet (e.g. at amazon) and attach them, and the DIY puzzle Advent calendar is ready.

Alternatively, you can simply make a pretty, inexpensive decorative wooden ladder with my instructions. The advantage of this is that you can attach 25 hooks for hanging, which are not included in the wooden ladders you buy, and you get a super versatile Advent calendar hanging for next year as a decoration or for a new Advent calendar.

It is more time-consuming if you choose and design the puzzles yourself – but of course it is also more personal.

How to Make Your Own DIY Puzzle Advent Calendar

This puzzle Advent calendar consists of 25 rolled-up cards with 25 colourful, varied puzzles of different types. You can find the link to download the puzzles and the solutions as well as all the materials I used to make them on the material list.

You can buy the wooden ladder or make it yourself. White birch wood or dried driftwood looks best for this.

Material List*

• Template for the 25 puzzle cards
• Template for the 25 puzzle solutions
• Advent calendar numbers (on wooden clips) e.g. made of wood or felt
• if necessary, extra mini wooden pegs
• Red and white baker’s twine
• Macramé yarn or twine
• 4 sticks with Ø 2,5cm-3cm (birch is the most beautiful)
• Alternatively: ready-made deco wooden ladder
• Circular saw or fretsaw and sandpaper
• Golden screw hooks in size 2 cm or 2.4 cm
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors

1. Print Out 25 Puzzle Cards to Make Your Own DIY Puzzle Advent Calendar and Add Numbers

To make sure that the bright colours of the puzzle cards come out just as beautifully when printed, I have a tip for you: Go to the nearest photo shop and get them there as photos (format 13 cm). Otherwise, simply print them out in colour.

Roll up each puzzle card individually and secure the overlapping flush paper ends with a mini wooden clip. Using the hot glue gun, stick an Advent calendar number onto the front clip of each wooden bracket.

Cut 25 short pieces of baker’s twine, knot a small loop and glue one small loop each, pointing upwards, onto the back clip. All that’s left to make the DIY Advent calendar puzzle is to hang it up.

2. How to Make a Christmas Tree Shaped Wooden Ladder

Saw 4 sticks into the following lengths: 16 cm, 28 cm, 37 cm, 52 cm. The best way to do this is with a circular saw, the ends are cut so smoothly that you don’t even need to rework them with sandpaper. Alternatively, you can use a fretsaw and simply sand the ends with sandpaper until they are nice and velvety.

Place the sticks horizontally under each other in the shape of an isosceles triangle at a distance of 16 cm. Start with the longest stick on the bottom left and knot the macramé yarn around the end of the first stick, then around the second stick, the third and the fourth stick, leaving 30-40 cm of string hanging at the top. Do the same on the right and knot the sticks together from the bottom to the top. You can knot the loose ends of the string at the top at the desired height for hanging.

Now turn screw hooks in the size 2cm or 2,4cm in equal distance into the sticks:

• Longest pole (bottom): 1o screw hooks
• Second-longest pole: 7 screw hooks
• Third-longest pole: 5 screw hooks
• Shortest stick (top): 3 screw hooks

3. Get the Puzzle Advent Calendar Ready to Hang

Now hang up the Christmas tree decorative wooden ladder and attach the puzzle rolls to the hooks so that the numbers face the front. If you have bought a decorative ladder, tie loops around the sticks with the baker’s twine, knot them at the desired height and glue the knots to the back clip of the wooden clamp.

It’s so easy to make a beautiful DIY puzzle advent calendar yourself!

Looking for more craft ideas and inspiration for homemade Advent calendars? From romantic DIY Advent calendars for lovers, Advent calendars with quotes and Creative Advent calendar fillings you can get inspiration here. Or are you looking for more ideas for a DIY advent calendar to fill? My absolute favourite is the Snowflake Advent Calendar made from loo rolls. Check out our blog for advent and Christmas ideas. Or visit us any time of the year for ideas for leisure activities for two, family and your favourite people.

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