advent calendar inspiration

Last year I made 26 "Names of Jesus ornaments" for my Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.  I was going to carry over the tradition of doing something crafty on Christmas Eve this year too . . . but I have class.  So, I invited my class to my house for a party.  That's an ok compromise in my book.

However, I know what this year's craft is going to be . . . I really want to make an Advent Calendar.  So, I've been collecting ideas while I wait for a time when I can actually make it (which I am hoping is sometime during my Chinese New Year break in January and February).

I REALLY like the toilet paper tree ones that I first found on Bringing School Home and then later on here and the paper box and match box ones that I first saw on the Better Homes and Gardens site. 

There are also some really cool family and around the world themed ones that I think are really neat.

So, maybe it is a good thing that I don't have time till Chinese New Year to work on my Advent Calendar . . . gives me time to collect some more toilet paper rolls. :) 

Thought I'd share with you some of the inspiration I've been collecting.  You can click on this mosaic and go to flickr to see the photo credits and also click through to the page with the original photo.  On those pages, some of the photographers/crafters explain how they created their advent calendar in case you see one you want to emulate.

Aren't these all just awesome.  Some are quite simple and others are more elaborate.  There are several ideas I want to copy. 

In typical Amanda fashion, I would like to have oh . . . about 100 advent calendars.  Do you think that would be too many?