Advent calendar...

...all done & dusted and ready to share at the Simply Christmas Inspiration Friday party.

Lots of photos coming up so you might want to make yourselves comfy.

Remember that pile of cut out boxes on my desk the other day? Well all the boxes have been constructed and for ease of transporting I had them sitting in the lid of a photocopy paper box (the one I use when spraying or misting stuff).
As you can see, there are four of each design box and they have all been coloured with 'Gold' and 'Red Gold' Letraset Metallic markers.
I highlighted some of the images with Stardust gel pen (doesn't show too well in these photos).
Next step was to add the numbers. The circles are punched from some ivory pearl card using a tiny X-cut scalloped circle punch. The numbers are copper colour peel-offs. The 'Red Gold' metallic marker was used to edge the circles...
...and 3D glue dots used to attach them to the side of the lids.
All the boxes were then filled and placed into a custom made housing.
The idea being that the housing has four openings (one on each side) and the boxes can be slid out in number order and the contents retrieved.
As a box is removed the next one drops down to take its place and the empty box can be placed back in the housing by removing the lid. I decorated the sides of the lid with white glitter card that had been punched using a Martha Stewart border punch. This one is actually a Halloween one called 'gloop' (I think) but doesn't it look like snow hanging from a rooftop.
Here is a view showing the boxes partly out of the housing...
...and here they are pushed right in - flush with the sides of the housing.
Here is the finished item. An advent tower.

The decoration has been kept fairly simple but I have kept to the overall colour scheme of gold & bronze/copper. This project was quite a lot of work but very enjoyable. Thank you Pauline for such a lovely idea.

So there you have it, my 2011 advent calendar ready and waiting for December 1st to arrive...............................