Make advent calendar elephants yourself

An elephant as an advent calendar

You need:

MDF board 1 cm thick - here: 80 x 50 (small elephant) and 90 x 70 cm (large elephant)
Carbon paper
Jigsaw
Sandpaper

For priming:
Acrylic paint in white

For painting:
Colors as desired

Furthermore:
narrow and wide brush
Cork board 4 mm thick - about 35 x 30 cm and 45 x 40 cm
cutter
All Purpose Adhesive
Thumbtacks or upholstery nails
Sisal tape
Border, fabric remnants
sewing machine
Gift ribbon
Construction paper
Gold pen
double sticky tape

Step 1: sawing out

Enlarge the elephant templates (see below) and transfer them to the boards with carbon paper. Cut out the contours with a jigsaw and sand the edges smooth. The advantage of MDF boards: The cut edges hardly need to be reground.

Im ersten Schritt wir werden die Konturen mit einer Stichsäge ausgeschnitten

In the first step we cut out the contours with a jigsaw.

Photo: bine-braendle.de

Step 2: coloring

Prime the elephants white, let them dry and then paint them as you like. Tip: refine the elephants with golden contours! Patterns succeed very quickly with a star stamp and a gold stamp pad.

Zuerst sollten Sie den Elefanten weiß grundieren

First you should prime the elephant white.

Photo: bine-brändle.de

Step 3: stick on the cork

Cut the saddle out of the cork sheet with a cutter and stick it on with all-purpose glue. You can paint it, stamp it or stick it with fabric as you like, and decorate the edges with borders. The sisal band is pinned on as a tail.

Den Sattel aus Kork können Sie mit einem Alleskleber aufkleben

You can glue the cork saddle with an all-purpose glue.

Photo: bine-braendle.de

Step 4: sew the sachet

Tear out 24 pieces of fabric about 15 x 20 cm in size. You may vary the sizes slightly. They are folded once on the broad side and the outer edges are sewn together. Then flip them over and fill them with goodies. Then they are tied with a ribbon and pinned to the elephant along with small branches. For the numbers, you can cut out stars from construction paper, label them with gold pencil and attach them with adhesive tape.