Wooden Advent House No. 2

I must be a glutton for punishment, because yesterday morning while listening to the omnibus edition of The Archers I finally finished a second Advent House, as an early Christmas present for my sister-in-law who has been so unbelievably golden to me over the last eighteen months. I wanted to make her something special, that perhaps will become an heirloom her children will fight over!!!!!!

I now have one last Tesco house left …. and that will be for Tom’s and Laura’s next year, and Lucy will be given my original one.  Anyway I digress …. I decided to use HobbyCraft Christmas 12 x 12 canvas sheets on this house, thinking it would be different to use a textured “paper” and it would save me all the varnishing!!

I kept to my basic design, using the same Hobbycraft Advent numbers as I used on the one for Jacob, but I had to source a lot of new stuff, like new snowmen (Craft For Christmas from eBay), some sparkly gift wrap (from Bulters) which should prove far more economical for other Christmas projects too, for the snow as I had absolutely no A4 white glitter card left………..

….. plus some silver corner and small dot peel offs and some green and gold trim from the market (£1.50 a yard) …… oh and two of the snowflakes I got from the charity shop earlier in the week glued together with a flat back gem in the centre, at the top of the roof.

I think I fiddle farted with this house far more than I did with the other three I have made …. every time I thought that is it, I found somewhere else to embellish ……

……. it just seemed to go on and on and on!!!  But if you can’t over embellish at Christmas, well when can you?

I also need to apologise ….. life is rather busy at the moment, but I have enough posts in the bag to keep to an every other day type schedule,  but I don’t think I will be able to produce the amount of “new” ideas that I have done in the past ….. however, the old ideas are still there if you go to “labels” on the right side of the blog and click on anything that begins with Christmas or sounds remotely like!!!

I will endeavour to do something with all the bits that I have shown you in my recent heads up …… I am slowly building up the blog to it’s former self  ….. and am loving crafting again ….. the buzz is definitely back ….. it’s just that  my social life is too !!!!!!

Chalkboard Advent Calendar

Another idea today using up bits and pieces  I’ve had for a while.  The chalkboard is from Gisela Graham, I bought a job lot of them from e-bay a couple of years ago and have just a couple left, I love them but doubt if I will ever find them again once the last one is used up. It measures 15cm x 9 cm.

I’ve married the board up with an old wooden Santa that I found at the bottom of a box, some resin snowflakes plus a couple of lengths of East of India ribbon.  The writing is done with a white Posca pen  which is brilliant on chalkboards etc. and the small stars and dots were done with a white gel pen.

Done and dusted!

Mini Advent Calendar

I wanted to make a small, cross off advent calendar to go on the  work desk of a friend who loves carts.

 

The cat comes from a box of Pepper’s Christmas Party chipboard shapes (Trimcraft) and the spotty paper comes from an 8 x 8 paper pack from the same range.  The whole thing, backed on a firm card, measures 14cms x 8cms and the calendar part, which I made in Publisher, measures 7.5cm x 7cm. 

I have put self adhesive magnetic tape on the back, but a loop ribbon would look good too.  A few stars here and there finish the effect.

Googly Eyes top tip …I have found that by adding googly eyes of slightly different sizes to a character it adds something to the perspective.

Advent Sock Calendar

Not a craft project today, just an idea I've seen lots of times on various blogs and sites including Martha Stewart for a really cheap re-useable Advent Calendar.

I found three packs of three pairs of baby’s first size Christmas socks in BM Bargains for 99p a pack – so that’s 24 little “Christmas Stockings” for £3.96 – which is OK!

I then hung them on a length of red wool using small red pegs, that I already had, to keep them in place ….. but I might have to use slightly bigger pegs if I put anything too heavy in the socks.

 

And finally, I stuck peel off numbers on each sock for each day leading to Christmas.  That’s it! 

Packs of adult socks in Primark are pretty cheap, about £2.00 - £2.50 for a pack of 4/5 and they have some lovely colours and patterns  and I always need a socks…. so I was thinking of buying a few packs and hanging them all along the washing line over Christmas for fun and then when it’s all over a quick wash and I’ve got a new set of socks to start the New Year with!

Sticker Advent Calendar

I have lots of tiny leftover Christmas stickers from Paperchase and Accessorize and it seems such a waste not to use them … so I’ve come up with this idea…. a sticker advent calendar. It's an idea for a child/children, where they can choose a sticker/s and put them the on the calendar, perhaps with a bit of colouring in the days leading up to Christmas. 

I made the calendar part by creating table in Publisher, with spaces big enough to put a sticker, it was a bit trial and error taking  me about half an hour to get right.

 

I’ve mat and layered the calendar, first on silver and then red card and put adhesive magnetic tape on the back so it will stick on a fridge etc., but a loop of ribbon could be added instead. Finished, the calendar measures 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

Then I’ve taken an empty sticker sheet, put an assortment of my leftover festive stickers on it.  That’s it.  Naturally I’ve have gone all fiddle farty and added doodles to each space …. but that’s just me …..

If I were into scrapbooking … I think I would try to work a scrapbook/journal page around it after it was completed as a lasting memory.

Baking Tray Advent Calendar

I have seen baking tray Advent calendars so many times while Googling,  but it wasn’t my intention to make one when I first started this project…… the idea in my head was for a bingo card on a bingo board! I first put the number sheet together in Publisher using my “Little Joys” digi set by Zoe Pearn from Sweet Shoppe Designs but as the idea changed, so did the proportions of the sheet! Aghhh

I wanted to use decorated magnets to cover up the numbers but I hadn’t thought it through properly as I had nothing for the magnets to stick to!  When it finally dawned on me that my original idea wasn’t going to work,  I suddenly remembered the Poundshop baking tray I had squirreled away and immediately set about spraying it white with car paint, bought from a local market  for a pound.

 

Next, I found some old buttons and proceeded to stick small magnets on the back, but it soon became obvious how dull they looked and the white spaces at the side of the calendar looked pants too.

So I raided my Christmas button box and replaced some original buttons with the large snowflake ones and then added the smaller snowflakes to the remaining buttons, and flat backed gems to the centres. All this chopping and changing was getting on my nerves, but I preserved and I was beginning to get somewhere. My next hurdle was how to fill in white spaces…….

…… which I did with quite a well matching 12 x 12 paper which has tiny stars on. I cut it into shaped strips to fit down the sides and added a few punched snowflakes to go with the snowman theme and was thrilled with the end result….. which I had to finish off with a bit of faux stitching on the tray rim.

….. but this is nothing like the idea I first had in my head!

 

Tiny House Advent Calendar

This is probably the tiniest Advent Calendar I have ever made. I’ve put a cotton bud by it so you can gauge the size.

The tiny house chalkboard cost me 50p a couple of years ago, I loved it but it’s been in my drawers ever since because I didn't know what to do with it.

In fact everything I’ve used here have been odds and ends that I’ve squirreled away, waiting for that “Ulrika” moment!

The wooden tag, which I’ve handwritten, cost me 15p and  the snowman embellishment is a button that I have just added a bit of colour to using Sharpies pens.

All I need now is a small piece of chalk or a dressmakers chalk pencil so that I can mark off the days!

Flip Over Advent Calendar

I found this Advent Calendar below and thought I’d like to have a go at making something similar:-http://www.fiskarettes.co.uk/index.php/date/2009/11

But, when I started making it I didn’t actually save the site or picture (which I have since found again)  so I was working on a vaguish memory of what I thought it looked like, in my head.

Putting it together was a fiddle as I have only ever made small books using my Bind It All before, in fact I very nearly gave up! Please bear with me as the instructions may not be too detailed as I was making this very much on the hoof and was concentrating more on the making rather than remembering to take a picture at each stage.

Each square measured 4 1/4in x 4.1/4ins and I used the width of a ruler to make the bottom of the calendar.  I then cut it out and scored the middle lines, followed by punching both ends using my Bind It All.

The pages measure 4ins x 4ins, and were punched and then very carefully cut in two.

 
For my first attempt  (above) I used 3 coils for each side of the calendar, but it looked wonky, as you can see, so I did it again, this time using just one length of 6 coils.

I created a set of numbers using Publisher on the same colour card as the calendar base and then added a K & Co. Christmas paper as a background. The rest is all the fiddly twiddly bits…….. which included lots of faux stitching using a white gel pen, large holly leaves made with a punch, and red foil holly berries. I tried to  use red flat backed gems for the berries originally, but it made the right hand side of the calendar far too bulky.

I am not 100% happy with what I have made, if I were to do it again, I would make the number panels shorter to give me more space to vary the decoration at the bottom of each page, at the moment they are all pretty much the same. Having said that, it’ll look very nice on my festive desk at work.

My Many Pocketed Advent Calendar Challenge!

This is my “Many Pocketed Advent Calendar” hung up on my craft room door………

I have set myself a challenge to make a little something for each pocket before 1st December, then I will take it to work and let everyone choose a pocket  …… I think 24 totally different ideas might be a lot for my haddled brain …. so some ideas may be duplicated but different, if you know what I mean, i.e I may decorate three chocolate bars, but they will each have a separate design …… how exciting!

Advent - Countdown to Christmas Chalkboard

I was still thinking about my Advent Chalkboard this morning, when I had one of those “eureka” moments, I suddenly remembered a wooden Christmas garland that I bought in a garden centre sale, for a couple of pounds, a little while ago.

It took a bit to find …. but the search was well worth it, as the snowmen on it are just perfect!

All I've had to do was take the garland apart. There were six snowmen in total, so I am chuffed. There were also about six santas on it too, but they are not quite so big and look out of proportion, but no doubt I will find a use for them too.
I have attached some gingham ribbon to the string hanger and added the writing and snow with white Posca pen, adding a touch translucent micro glitter along the bottom. All I need now are a few wooden snowflakes here and there around the frame. I'll post another picture when the board is completed.

I hang my head in shame though, I can’t be the only one who has so much crafty stuff that I forget what I’ve got, can I?

Where Can I Get…….?

Ideas wanted please ………

I have just bought some really cute Giselle Graham chalkboards (10 x 7 cms) from e-bay, that I want to turn into Mini Advent Christmas Countdown Boards

I am going to write “ …..days to Christmas” on them with white Posca pen and attach either a piece of chalk or a chalk pencil on a string,  so that children can  fill in the days left till Christmas.

But now I am stuck as to what to use to embellish them (probably in the right hand bottom corner, and across top and bottom).

If it is to last for more than one year, I think wooden embellishments are the best idea – and I like the idea of snowmen or a Father Christmas.

Any ideas where I might get something suitable?  I like the  America folksy art/cutesy style, and I guess I am looking for something about 4 cm tall, but at the moment I don’t have a clue where to look.

How To Make An Itsy Bitsy Advent Calendar.

I have been asked for some instructions on how to make my little Advent Calendars. I am hoping that the pictures will do most of the work, please bear with me, I'll try my best and hope I get everything in the right order .........

First, design your numbers. I used A4 page setting in Publisher and 2 Peas font "Typo" (download from http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/), font size 16 for December and font size 65 for the number. Each square measures approx. 4.5cm x 4 cm. I managed to get all 25 on one sheet. Cut numbers out.To make the body of the calendar, cut a piece of card (I used dark blue leather effect) approx. 9cm long x 6.5cm wide. Add two wavy strips of white glitter card along the bottom . Put a length of ribbon on top of the "snow", leaving enough to stick behind the card to give a neater finish. Add a bow to the main ribbon by threading a smaller piece underneath and making a single knot. Mat and layer on silver card.

Cut a co-ordinating piece of card approx 5cm x 5cm and mat and layer on silver card and stick onto the snow scene.

Decorate a mini bulldog clip with co-ordinating ribbons and secure the numbers in its grip. Carefully attach the clip to the calendar body.

Add an embellishment to one side of the calendar, I used a "Dress It Up" snowman button. As a finishing touch add several clusters of three dots on the sky area in white pen.

Finally stick a magnet on the back. And voila!!!