Pottery Barn Inspired Branch Advent Calendar

I saw this Pottery Barn Branch Advent Calendar, and I fell in love...then I looked at the price $299.00. 

Holy Cow!

I mean it's cool, but 300 bucks for some buckets and branches? 

My next though was, I'm pretty sure I could make something like that for a lot less.

So I came up with my supply list:

branches 

(our apple tree just fell down so those were perfect!)

Spray Paint 

Paint for Numbers

Rope or Twine

25 Buckets or Cups

Hole Punch 

Items to put inside the buckets.

I used plastic red cups that were about 3-4 inches tall.

 Spray painting them worked great. I usually always have drips when I paint, but I didn't have any with these.

 Next I took a hole punch and punched a whole on both sides of the cups.

 I painted the numbers on with white acrylic paint.

 I took the twine and put it through the whole and tied a knot. If I did it over again, I would just tie one side and tie the other after I hung them. I tied both thinking I could just slip it over the branch but I ended up having to untie and retie a lot of them.

 I put two of these hooks in my ceiling about 2-3 feet apart and about 4 inches from the wall.

 I took the twine, tied a knot in the top then wrapped it around the branch and tied it.

It should look something like this when you're done.I realize that mine looks a little different from the pottery barn one. I really like it though!

I think I could have put something heavy in the bottoms of the cup to make them hang a bit straighter (like the pottery barn one) but I feel like it has a little more character this way.

 I filled the buckets full of silly little things like; tattoos, stickers, socks, sunglasses, undies, fruit rolls, and some left over Halloween candy.

I can't wait for the count down to begin!