Saturday, December 3, 2011

Advent Calendar with Reversible Boxes

I just love the Kaisercraft Advent Calendar and had been dying to make for my son for Christmas this year. I finally got it done on December 2! Only a day late...I'll guess have to eat the first two candies.... :)  I made the boxes for the calendar reversible, so after you finish each day you can turn the box around. I'm so happy with how this turned out. I hope it is something my son will treasure for years to come.

I assembled the calendar (my dremel tool was super handy to sand off all the extra tabs) and painted it with a basecoat of Adirondack Espresso acrylic paint. I then added a couple of coats of DecoArt Spun Gold acrylic paint - it wasn't quite the tone I wanted, so to get the "old gold" look I was going for, I treated the entire surface of the calendar with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I used the same paint treatment for the calendar numbers.

I used two Graphic 45 paper collections, Christmas Past and Christmas Emporium for all the paper on the calendar and just love these collections and they go so perfectly together! I wrapped each box with paper and added a ribbon "pull tab" at the bottom on the reverse side of the boxes.  I then covered the bottom of each box with coordinating paper. I inked all the edges of the boxes with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I cut the "stamps" and small images from the G45 papers and distressed/inked the edges before adhering them to the boxes. I also added some Recollections Dimensional Stickers and K & Company Adhesive Chipboard and Stickers to several of the boxes.

I cut the central image from the G45 Christmas Emporium paper. I added the cream/gold cording around the edge of the image to give it a more finished look. I wanted to add something "extra" to the centre of the calendar, but I didn't want to obscure the image on the paper -- so I added a few simple handmade gift-boxes to the corners. I created the "boxes" by cutting and gluing pieces of cardboard together. I then wrapped the boxes with some of the G45 papers and inked all the edges. I added some ribbon to finish off the mini-gifts.

Thanks for visiting my blog - I hope you have a wonderful holiday season! Only twenty-two days until Christmas!

~Sarah

Materials Used:
Advent Calendar by Kaisercraft; Patterned Paper by Graphic 45: Christmas Past (Victorian Greetings, The Night Before Christmas, Glad Tidings, Christmas Past Frames, Holiday Spirit, The Holly & the Ivy, and Letters to Santa) and Christmas Emporium (Christmas Emporium, Believe! and Special Delivery); Adirondack Acrylic Paint in Espresso; DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Spun Gold; Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo; Recollections Signature Dimensional Stickers; K & Company Yuletide Adhesive Chipboard and Snow Globe Stickers; Celebrate it Holiday Ribbon and Cord; Craftsmart Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks; Memory Tape Runner XL, Xyron Sticker Maker and Glue Dots.

4 comments:

Linda Pekrul said...

This is so beautiful Sarah. How clever of you to decorated the other side of the little boxes too! Your little packages in the center are just right. (In my humble opinion lol.)

Heather Jacob said...

oh Sarah this is magnificent .. so much work and love has gone into this ..... just amazing and full of magic .. I am sure your son will treasure it .. hugz x

Kelly Codd Greatrex said...

LOVE IT! Seriously Sarah, this is fan-freaking tastic! Gorgeous too!

Trudi Harrison said...

Sarah, such an amazing keepsake you have created for your son. It will be truly treasured over the years to come.

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog xx