Countdown to Christmas...

...can take various forms.

Who doesn't love the surprise of an Advent calendar that either reveals an image - or better yet...a treat of some kind.

The lovely Kerryanne English has provided a free e-pattern over at her blog for a lovely Victorian style Advent box - do hop over and take a look.

Over the years I have had a variety of Advents and have made a few too.

Matchbox Advents are still one of my favourites...

...despite the fact that I then end up with tons of matches that I need to dispose of LOL

My very first advent was a card with doors that opened to reveal Christmas images. It was sent as a birthday card by my cousins in Sweden as my birthday falls towards the end of November. I have had an advent pretty much every year since.

Do you have an Advent calendar and if so, do you prefer chocolates, little gifts or something else - do tell....................................................................

Paper crafting comes...

...flat packed.

Saturday was the Advent Calendar class at Pinnacle crafts and Andy certainly had us working.

There was a huge amount of cutting to be done...

...56 pieces of greyboard 3x3ins, 56 pieces 4 & 5/8ths x 3ins (or in Andy speak - 4 and a half & 1/8th by 3ins) and each piece DST'd on both sides.
Twenty-four balloon weight boxes (Tonic die) cut in ivory Centura Pearl...

 ...to give the boxes a soft sheen. This is when you start to wish you had an e-Bosser or something similar...

...because once the boxes were cut we then went back and cut decorative insert panels (Tonic dies). Andy's boxes were cut on all four sides but I decided to just go with the front & back panels.
Then there was even more cutting...

...PP was needed to cover both sides of the greyboard pieces - 112 of the 3x3 and of course 112 of the rectangle too. By this stage the table was getting messy and I gave up with the photos. We were all having a giggle about our inability to 'count' as we all kept finding odd numbers of this & that (I'm still not sure whether I have 27 & 1/2 boxes or one panel short of 29 **giggle**).

Time got the better of us and my Advent calendar certainly came home as a flat-pack.

I couldn't leave it like that so here you go Andy...

 ...just to prove that I have made at least one complete box...

 ...complete with tea-light (battery type)...

 ...and I'm still trying to decide whether to ink all the edges of the outer boxes...

...so one down...

The aim of this class was to create a "Statement piece" and when you see Andy's...

 ...in its different configurations...

 ...you get the feel of just how huge this piece could be if all the boxes were stacked together...

...or it could be kept more manageable by stacking in small groups.

I think I will go for the WOW factor and have mine stacked together on the side table in the hall. I have DST'd all my gift boxes so they are all ready to go - I just need to get the outer boxes covered and put together. I'd better get a move on - 34 days and counting.......................................................

Pinch, Punch...

...first day of the month.

Yep folks, it's 1st December and the start of Advent so I thought it was time to get the bloggy decs up (the real decs at home may take a while longer LOL).

So, did you all open the first window, box, stocking on your advent calendar?

Hope you got some nice goodies - also hope those of you with chocolate advents have behaved and not emptied the complete contents in one go **giggle**

How are the preparations going?

Kerryanne's "Simply Christmas" is in full swing over at the Shabby Art Boutique.

Mrs Dunnit (the lovely Julia) is making a list and checking it twice over at the Stamping Ground.

...and...

UKS have started their countdown to Christmas - there will be a new project every day until the 23rd December.

Oh, and if you fancy the chance to win yourself some digi goodies - there are 7 days of Holiday chaos over at Catch the Bug.

Have fun.....................................................................................

Christmas Traditions...

...mean so much.

With just a few days to go before we start the Advent countdown, I start to think of all the things that have become a tradition for our family at this time of year.

Probably the biggest tradition that has continued is the new PJs, slippers & dressing gown to snuggle into on Christmas Eve...

Growing up, Mum would bundle my sister and I upstairs for our bath on Christmas Eve and then wrapped in big fluffy towels we would come down to see what Santa's Elves had left us under the tree as an early treat...we always felt so smart in our new PJs or nighties and we always tried to stay awake so that we could show them off to Santa - we never managed it but I'm sure Santa thought we looked lovely in our new nightwear.

My sister continued this with my niece when she was small and even now I usually have something new to put on Christmas Eve - even if it is just new slippers.

My sister's birthday is in the Summer so she could have birthday parties in the garden or trips to the seaside...with mine being just over a month before Christmas, Mum & Dad helped me to celebrate in a different way. The weekend nearest to my birthday would be when the Chrismas decorations went up in our house. This has been tempered over the years and now I try to make a start on my home decs on 1st December so that I can enjoy them for a whole month.

On the subject of Chrimbo decs...my sister and I always got to choose a new decoration for the tree and I am lucky enough to have these delicate glass treasures carefully wrapped as a keepsake of my childhood. These days I love to pick a few new baubles for the tree and when ever possible I try to make some decs as well - this year I have made a couple of padded fabric hearts (which I shared with you a couple of posts ago).

I don't remember exactly how old I was but I do remember that my first Advent calendar came from Mum's cousins in Sweden - it was sent to me instead of a birthday card...I have had an Advent calendar every year since. Sometimes they were just the 'open a window' type and other years they held chocolate treats. For the last good few years I have made myself an Advent...I have had decorated boxes made from matchboxes (the first year I made this style I made quite a few - I'm sure the local stores thought I was a secret arsenist LOL) and several years I have made the "sleeps 'til Santa" type.
Last year I actually attended a workshop and I made a tower full of boxes which was great for filling with sweets. This year I'm back doing a "sleeps" style (if I manage to get it finished in time).

I think one of the traditions I missed the most was the visit to Santa. Growing up it was such a treat to be taken up to Gammages Department Store in London to see Santa...you would board the 'magic sleigh' and journey to the Northpole where you would then wander through 'ice' grottos before reaching Santa's workshop. You then got to chat to Santa and tell him what you really wanted for Christmas before being given a gift to take away on the day...usually colouring books and pencils or the like. When Gammages closed it was never the same just going to see Santa sat in a store and I think this was one of the reasons we started the letter to Santa tradition for my niece.

Christmas can be so hectic and so very commercialised that it is nice to have traditions and memories that you can hold on to. Some of the traditions have changed slightly over the years but there are still things that provide a constant at this time of year...there is always a gift for everyone (including the pets) from Santa under the tree - I mean, it just wouldn't be Christmas without a gift from Santa; would it?.........................................

I thought I might...

...make another Advent calendar.

Yep I know, I can be a glutten for punishment at times LOL
I've gone for classic B&W for this set and as I don't own a set of the Spellbinders box dies these ones are 4x4inch squares that I have scored using my Crafter's Companion - I've made 12 boxes so far.
A couple of designs are mainly snowflakes...
...as you can see.
My original thought was to stamp the lids using my Clarity small floral swirl stamp and a white Brilliance ink pad - I had forgotten just how wet these ink pads are and after getting in a right mess just stamping two lids, I decided 'enough was enough'...made a right mess of the stamp too which meant a major cleaning effort - not my favourite passtime. However, I must say that the ink pad did provide good colour on the black CS.
I used some Glitteration circle stickers on a couple of the boxes.

Not sure how I'm going to decorate the other 12 or how I'm going to 'house' them as they are flatter boxes than my last lot. Something to think about...................

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...............................

New for 2011...

...a new advent calendar.

Okay, so from the mess on the desk it probably doesn't look very much like an advent calendar but...
...I am getting there.

Pauline took part one of the advent calendar class today (Friday) and for a 2hr class we certainly had our work cut out for us. The boxes were cut for us using Spellbinders dies and the Grand Calibre...this was done to speed things up a bit as there really is a lot involved.
24 boxes with lids had to be folded and creased in all the right places and then half of them had to be 'distressed' - I used Ranger Distress ink pad 'antique linen'. All the lids had to have a sentiment stamped on top - for this I used 'vintage photo'.
This is the first completed box (I've since added some stickles). All the bottom parts of the boxes had to be stamped with a selection of Christmas images. Pauline set some 'homework' to be completed before part two of this class next week...to colour and decorate the boxes (if we wished) but all the boxes must be constructed by next lesson. For most of the ladies this means a week to get things done - for me, I have to have everything ready for Monday as that was the day that I could get off work. One busy weekend coming up.
The distressed lids didn't look quite right so I've added a second colour to the edges - 'old paper'.

I've coloured, I've stickled and I've DST'd all the tabs. In part two we make a large box to hold the small boxes so I'll show you the pics when it is all done..........................................

Time to get started on...

...Christmas.

Folks over on UKS have produced the most wonderful Advent houses using a product that they got from Tesco. I missed out on these the year before last and last Christmas I never saw any in my local stores **pouts - not happy**. What I forgot was that about 18 months ago I used a completed loyalty card to purchase this...

A Karen Foster Countdown Calendar. How could I have forgotten LOL - I'll tell you how, it was buried under a load of stash. "Surely not!" I hear you all cry...uuummmmmmm, yep - I have to hold my hand up and admit that I have more than a little stash and lack of storage means I am very bad at keeping stuff straight and remembering all those wonderful 'must have' goodies that I have acquired.

Well this treasure I have unearthed and I will be turning it into my Christmas Advent box for this year. My biggest problem now is to decide how I am going to decorate it.

I have some super Kaiserkraft PPs that would give it a distressed Victorian feeling or some BoBunny PPs that would make it feel more frosty/snowy. I just have to make the choice.

I promise to show you pics of what I decide and how it progresses................

A different...

...type of advent.

I have made so many advent chests this year I thought I'd have a go at something else.



Using some board from the back of some note pads, some Dovecraft Christmas PP, red core-dination CS, black organza ribbon, gold CS, gold number peel-offs, gold stickles and the Cuttlebug cut/emboss trees, with embossing folders Snowflakes and Lace tree and of course my trusty BIA...I decided to make a "Sleeps 'til Santa" flip-over countdown advent.



Sorry the close-up is a bit fuzzy but I'm quite pleased with the way it came out even if the binding bit was a bit fiddly....................

Hope I'm not...

...boring you LOL

COS HERE'S MORE BOXES.............





Still not sure what to do with all these matches though LOL.......................

And there's more...

...advent boxes, that is LOL.


Here are the latest four to add to the collection - and there are more on the way.

Mum pinched my original blue one so of course I had to make a replacement (hehe)

I have so many different Christmas PPs that I have found it very difficult to choose what to use - so I've been doing more boxes to try them out LOL

I've also had a play with different ways of opening the drawers, so there are a mix of ribbons (looped or knotted) and brads.

I have three more on the go at the moment plus enough boxes to make a further two after that.

Keep watching this space, LOL...........................

Pretty boxes made of...

...ticky-tacky (well matchboxes, actually LOL).



As you can see, the collection is growing. I have another part done and enough matchboxes to make a further two (additional supplies will have to be obtained soon - hehe).

I might have a go at making some slightly bigger ones as I have now found some boxes part way between 'standard' and 'cooks'.

The pink/silver/black one is not an Advent box it is just a little trinket box that I have made as a gift for a friend's teenage daughter. I have plenty of other Christmas papers that I want to try so this could result in mass production LOL.

I wonder how many I'll be able to make before I get well and truely fed-up with them....................

Christmas is...

...coming.

And I've made a start on some Christmassy bits c",)



I had a play with my cuttlebug embossing folders and some decoupage bits.



I love the Lace tree.



Here is the result of the matchbox purchase LOL Sorry the pics are a bit fuzzy but the light isn't too good.



Well, I've made a start so I'd really better get cracking cos this isn't going to meet all my Christmas needs LOL Think I'll try some of the other Dovecraft Christmas PPs on my next Advent box, or perhaps Making Memories, or K&Co or......



Me thinks I'd better get some more matchboxes..................................LOL

Can I just say...

...for the record.

I AM NOT AN ARSENIST IN TRAINING...........HONEST!!!!!!!

Just because I have been buying a few boxes of matches - well 48 to be exact LOL - doesn't mean I have a thing about setting light to things.

Let me explain...

Last year, some folk over on UKS made some super little advent boxes - OUT OF MATCH BOXES - which I had forgotten about until someone asked for instructions a couple of weeks ago. As I am trying to get organised for Christmas - I did say trying LOL - I thought I'd go and get some matchboxes.

Empty ones for craft purposes are about £5 for the 24 needed for completing one of these little delights so it is far cheaper to buy the real thing at about 31p for six.

One teeny tiny problem with this though...what do you do with all the matches? I am not into matchstick modeling, I don't have an open fire that needs lighting and there are only so many candles one can light without risking setting light to the whole house...sooooooooooooooooo, back to the problem, what does one do with all these matches.

I should imagine there are already a lot of concerned supermarket bosses across the nation wondering at the sudden leap in sales of safety matches................