How to Make a Scandinavian Style Advent Calendar

Select your base colour for your wooden advent tree, remove all of the drawers and pop them to one side. Paint your tree in your chosen colour.

You may prefer to add two coats of paint to create a more vibrant and even colour. Make sure to allow time for the paint to dry between each coat and before you move on to the next steps.

Whilst your tree base is drying, select a different colour for your advent drawers. Paint each drawer, its completely up to you if you would like to paint the entire drawer or simply the front.

Add your advent numbers to each draw, you can draw them on freehand or use wooden number embellishments. You can then colour these using your posca pens, choose a contrasting colour to make them really pop.

You are now ready to draw on your Scandi patterns using your paint pens. You can use the design template provided to draw from or print out the template and trace over your chosen pattern. Sketch them out in pencil first, then draw over it with your paint pen.

Add pattern wherever you would like to on your advent tree. Smaller patterns will look lovely on the doors and larger designs will work better down the sides of the tree. Remember that with these patterns, less is more, don't over load your advent tree. To keep it more traditional, stick to colours such as red, green, blue and white.

Keep to a small selection of patterns and repeat over each drawer, alternating between the colours across your piece. Continue until each drawer is covered, continue to add pattern across other sections of your advent tree if you wish. You could also use a clear craft sealer spray to keep your colours nice and bright and to protect your tree from scratches.