Christmas Village Advent Bags

Our second advent calendar this year made use- heavy use- of the Cricut. It was a perfect fit for this week's Just Buggin' Challenge #14- Layers. I just got the Jubilee cartridge and it had this DARLING village function and I immediately thought, "Christmas Village!" Then, my lovely friend gave me BAGS of those little My Little Ponies and accessories as her daughters have outgrown them and my daughter is still in the midst of her obsession. I didn't just want to give her everything at once, so the "bag" and "advent" idea was born. After all the houses were cut out, I thought they needed some fixing up so I started layering with other houses and numbers and punches and they looked a lot better. I found I could vary the same-style houses by adding little chimneys or a scallop (that was on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge) or a wreath (2 circle punches and a bow punch- my daughter's idea). The bag itself was on Plantin Schoolbook and was SO easy to make (it had to be- I needed 25!) Oh, and ignore the pictures that were obviously taken at night- very late at night I might add. Some of the embellishments were added before the house was glued to the bag- some after. The next morning, I filled them and put them on top of the armoire in our bedroom for safety purposes- we couldn't have Little Miss Curious looking in all the bags ahead of time- also, they totally matched my bedroom the best. I think we will use them every year... well, they might make it until next year, but the twins will be TWO next year and will have to be included... yea, I think we will use these two years in a row only.