Introduction the $0 Art Supply Advent Calendar Challenge!

My art discord was recently commiserating because art advent calendars cost so much. They’re also often full of items you don’t actually want, in retrospect. I have personally found that “mystery box” type purchases are exciting to anticipate, but ultimately disappointing. You rarely actually want the stuff in them. The best you can hope for is getting something you know you like because you already have it.

Hanna, who is a sometime guest poster here, suggested something revolutionary: what if we DIY advent calendars with things we already have? That is, we each choose 24 items from our own stash that we want to spend more time with, and each day in December we choose a random one to play with. This could be anything from creating a piece with it to just swatching / doodling.

I thought this was a great idea and I plan to do it! I could immediately think of several art supplies that fit the bill of “I own this, but I could use more time to explore it.” This includes multiple watercolor colors, fountain pens (a new art form I am exploring), some unusual brushes, and random items like different types of washi tape.

To emulate the mystery box element, I think it would be a good idea to assign each item to a date at random. But I haven’t yet decided which means of randomizing I will do:

• An Excel spreadsheet with a column of item names, where each cell is “hidden” by making the text and background color the same, and then ordered by rand()?
• Wrapping up each item in gift wrap and then choosing one at random?
• Getting a physical advent calendar (the kind with chocolate), then removing the chocolate and putting in art supplies (or at least slips of paper with the names of art supplies)?
• Making a paper advent calendar?
• Drawing slips of paper out of a hat?

I always tend to default to digital randomization, but physical methods sound like more fun! If it gets to be December 1 and I still haven’t decided, the hat method is always there for me.

Will you join the challenge??