Advent Calendar for years to come

When Emma had her sale this summer I bought a Kaisercraft Advent calender with hopes of having it done by December 1st for the kids to celebrate the season with .... well I'm not horribly late - just tardy as per my predictable self!  I finished it today - December 3rd!

 

I wanted this calendar to be unique, and timeless.  First I painted all the parts to the box white.  And put the boxes together with Ranger Terrifically Tacky double sided tape.  I wanted to use my favorite Christmas paper line Jovial by Basic Grey.  I created a fireplace with texture paste and gelatoes using a Prima stencil.  I wanted some lighting in the shadow box of this calendar, so I used a flameless tealight and some sticks as logs in the fireplace.  I also used a Tim Holtz mini lantern and his Woodlands collection tree and wreath.  I coloured the tree and wreath with Glimmer Glaze in Dirty Martini.

 

 

I kept the boxes simple and without too much decoration - so I inked them and put faux stitching on the edges.  I Mod Podged each of the boxes for durability for years to come.  Flowers on the tree are Prima, and the twine is Doodlebug.  The star on the tree is Teresa Collins.  The stockings are Debbie Travis garland!  I replaced some of the numbers with Tim Holtz bingo markers.

 

 

 

 

A trip to the dollar store to fill the boxes with trinkets, toys and the odd chocolate.  I can't wait to see the look on their faces for years to come when I haul this beauty out with the Christmas decorations!  I loved the process.  Although the building stage could have used more instructions ... and by more I mean ANY!  This kit came only with a photo of the finished product, nothing else. 

 

 

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Copic Techniques class August 25th at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking

Join me on Saturday August 25th to make this adorable Christmas card (you heard right - Christmas) The technique she will be focusing on is "reflection". Cost will be $25. You will complete this card and will be provided a spare image to colour. Please bring with you your scissors, adhesive, pop dots and the following Copic Markers:

R05 - Salmon Red

R29 - Lipstick Red*

R59 - Cardinal

YG93 - Grayish Yellow*

YG95 - Pale Olive*

YG97 - Spanish Olive

YG99 - Marine Green

Y21 - Buttercup Yellow*

YR14 - Caramel

YR27 - Tuscan Orange

E21 - Baby Skin Pink*

E51 - Milky White*

Optional are: E44, E29, E04, R20* - this is for hair and cheeks - you can change if you wish.

*Markers you will have in your collection already if you have taken all of my previous classes.

Don't you just love the Basic Grey Jovial collection, it is still my favorite Christmas line of all times!!!

Christmas is coming - a PageMaps layout

Christmas is coming - Christmas is coming!  Are you ready?  I've been thinking of Christmas for well over two months now.  I'm one 'of those' who has my Christmas tree up on the first of December without fail, and would probably have it up mid November if my husband would let me.  This year we haven't had much snow, in fact we didn't even have our first sighting of snow until nearing the end of November, so it's been more difficult for me to get into the Christmas spirit.  Crafting is high on my Christmas to-do list, from the handmade gift tags, to the multitude of Christmas cards I send out, to the individual hand made crafty gifts I give.  I enjoy my little Scrapping Corner in the evenings.

So, here is a layout I did for the Auntie Em's design team - using the PageMaps Calendar's December sketch and my favorite Christmas line of patterned papers Jovial from Basic Grey - yup, it's last year's paper, but it still remains my favorite!!

For my layout I choose a great photo of my daughter on her first Christmas. I fussy cut (and those of you who know me, know how much I *love* to fussy cut) some of the snowmen and snowflakes from one of the patterned papers and popped them up on some of the circles. I also used a Trinket from Bo Bunny and some Webster's Pages Trim. The poinsettias are about as old as my stash is, they must be at least 6 years old - lets put it this way they are older than when Prima started dating everything on their tins; and since they don't even use tins anymore - they are old LOL!!




The journaling I snagged from an AWESOME 600+ page book available at Auntie Em's called "Inspiration Station" it is just full of verses and quotes and poems. Also it has a whole section devoted to layout titles! Great if you are stuck for writing something or just want to add a little bit of sophistication to your page. You won't be disappointed with this book!  Again I used my sewing machine to stitch around the outside of my layout and inked with distress ink, um... just about everything!

Let me know what you think! Please leave a comment.