As a little girl I always wanted to have a real advent calendar, sure I got the ones that you get at the grocery store with the chocolates in each day, but I loved the idea of having something special in a little box that would be a surprise each day. Well, I finally have one! I have filled it with chocolates and little Christmas themed activities to do with my girls. I had fun coming up with ideas and the girls are going to have fun this season finding the number for the day and finding out what fun thing they can do that day. I feel it is really going to keep the magic alive that comes with Christmas and small children.
I took a class at my local Scrapbooking store in a support of design team member I worked with. I am not a “crafty class” type of person. The hubs has helped establish an amazing craft room and the thought of packing up my stuff and heading off to a crop or a class goes against my grain of being a crafting hermit. However, I had a blast taking the class, being among like-minded people and learning new approaches and techniques. Also a little harmless celebrity gossip and scandal swapping makes craft time grand! 🙂 – Hey, I do live 45 minutes from Hollywood on a good traffic day. 🙂
The tree is a MDF cutout from a Kaiser Craft kit. It was not rocket science putting the kit together, once again another more time and patience than “developed skill” to do to this project. You need to paint the cutouts with craft paint and let dry, sand down any rough edges, glue boxes together (you need rubber bands to hold together boxes until the glue dries). Cut paper to the shapes needed for the tree and boxes. Glue paper to boxes and tree. Build form and glue down (that could use a second person to help with this step and I was glad I had a partner). Embellish and add your goodies to the boxes. I used Kaiser Craft stickers for the numbering, gemstones and generic buttons I got over at Michael’s. I also inked the boxes and the edges of the tree with Chocolate from Close to My Heart. The paper was from Kaiser Craft and Doodlebug.
It was a fun project to fill a Saturday afternoon and support a fellow crafty blogging buddy. The best part is I finally have my Advent Calendar!
Thanks for sharing a piece of “getting out of my craft room hermit shell” pie with me.
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A Piece of Life's Pie 
Love love love it Arin!! You did an amazing job, look at all the different papers and I love the whole thing. What a lovely idea to add fun things to do in the boxes:-) Have a fabulous day. Hugs, Karon.
That is so adorable!!!
Wow! This is amazing!! I am so jealous of the the patience you possess, lol. This is such an incredible thing to do for your girls – something they will undoubtedly remember forever. I feel the same way that you did about off-site crafting, but I think I could handle it if I could make something like this! It’s definitely craft- tastic!!
{{{Hugs}}}
Diana 🙂
Leelee Card Designs
I knew I should have gone with you! I wish I did! I wanted an advent calendar this year and I never found one (or looked that hard)
Incredibly Awesome! This advent calendar is gorgeous!!! Love, love, love it!
Susie
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GREAT advent calendar! You did a wonderful job.
Love it! You will enjoy this year after year with your children. Great job!
Deanne
http://deannescraftingadventures.blogspot.com/
This is awesome!!! I want one :)! Now you will have it for each Christmas to come and it will be a fantastic tradition for your family! I love all the touches – the different vibrant papers, embellishments, and the stickers! Amazing project! Sounds like you had a lot of fun with other crafters too!!!