DIY K-Cup Advent Calendar

Somewhere between having 2 kids and becoming a stay at home mom, I became a coffee drinker.  I managed to make it through 4 years of university without touching a cup of coffee, but the sleepless nights with newborns and long days with toddlers quickly turned it into my preferred form of caffeine.

I love the idea of the tea advent calendar’s, but since I am not a big tea drinker I have found myself wishing there were a coffee version available instead.  I am actually surprised a K-Cup advent calendar doesn’t already exist given the increasingly popularity of advent calendars and that the K-Cups are already the perfect single serve format.  I have seen plenty of versions that recycle the K-cups and fill them with other goodies to create an Advent Calendar, but it is the coffee I want!  I did come across this amazing mock-up designed by Joel Bergman:

I can totally see myself buying this if Starbucks were to put it into production (wink, wink), but until then, I figured the best thing to do was to come up with my own DIY version!

To make my calendar, I ordered a 30 count variety box of Crazy Cups off Amazon.  With flavors like Peppermint Mocha, Spiced Gingerbread, Bananas Foster and Salted Caramel it sounded like the perfect daily treat to fuel my December.

To hold each of my K-Cups in place, I discovered they fit nicely inside plastic shot glasses that can be found at the Dollar or Party store.  I was hoping to find green ones, but I settled on the red solo cup versions.  I debated between making them in a tree or wreath shape and settled on a wreath.

For my base, I grabbed a Styrofoam cake base from Michael’s and used a serrated knife to cut a hole out of the center.  There were wreath forms, but they didn’t seem to leave enough surface to fit 25 K-cups on.  For a more finished look, I wrapped a red and green ribbon around the Styrofoam form.

Once my wreath was covered, I began hot gluing the small cups onto the form.  I was actually planning to do only 24 cups, but ended up fitting 25 onto the wreath.  Remember to leave space in between each cup to give you room to cover each cup.

To hide the coffee cups, I simply cut sheets of green tissue (4″x4″) to fit over each shot glass, then secured them overtop with an thin elastic band.

I was going to design my own set of numbers, but then I happened upon this free printable number set on the Oriental Trading blog.  I love the festive design and I already had the 1.5 inch punch to cut out the numbers.  For added texture and interest, I layered them on 2 inch circles of red and green printed scrapbook paper.

My wreath looks festive hanging on the wall and I can’t wait to start trying all the yummy Crazy Cups flavors and counting down to Christmas 2016!  And now that the base is made and decorated, I can easily refill with K-Cups and re-cover with tissue paper to enjoy again next December.

This would make a great gift for the Keurig owner in your life.  It is a fun presentation and a unique way to try some different coffee flavors.  You really are never to old for the surprise and delight of an advent calendar!