My Advent Calendar.... a little tutorial.

Hello Lovely Friends,

Well, I finally did it!  I managed to get this long overdue advent calendar done this year!  At The Colour Room this month, in addition to the weekly palettes, oodles of Christmas projects are being featured also.  The Design Team are sharing all of their festive projects for December, in order to really help you get into the creative Christmas spirit!!  Just check in every couple of days for an update.

I hope you enjoy my little tutorial:

I used the fantastic little Kaisercraft advent calendar with the ‘treasure drawers’ around the outside and this awesome panel in the centre, just begging for embellishment! I decided on a non-traditional colour scheme for this project and it is one that I have trialed a couple of times now on a couple of layouts and some Christmas tags.... and I just love it!  Blue, white, kraft and gold.

Step 1 | Assemble the calendar and spray paint white. This is so much quicker and easier than painting by brush. I think this step literally took me 30 minutes... too easy.

Step 2 |  I decided to cover my little treasure boxes with pattered paper. I have used Bo Bunny Et Cetera papers and My Minds Eye Lost & Found ‘Breeze’ papers. Select your papers and cut squares to size. Punch a semi circles in the front panel squares.

Step 3 |  Glue your papers to the flattened boxes and then glue them all into shape, using a strong adhesive. When dry, ink the edges of your boxes with gold ink.

Step 4 |  Now, the really fun part. Place your boxes in their homes to get an idea of your overall colour balance. Gather all of your supplies, embellies and numbers and start decorating each of your box fronts. Paint any chipboard embellishments too with gesso. I have used an A2Z Scraplets star flourish and ‘Magic of Christmas’ title, along with some RW Lasercuts stars.

Step 5 |  Time to direct our attention to the inner panel. The possibilities are limitless, so let your creativity loose! My basic design is a tree and presents in the bottom left corner and some hanging stars in the top right corner. A real ‘white Christmas’ theme... something I long for!!  :)

Distress edges and stitch a border around a square of patterned paper. I used some of my left over Bo Bunny Et Cetera paper. Glue in place as a backdrop to our winter wonderland theme.

Step 6 |  Bling up some of the stars with some beads and Dimensional Magic or Clear accents and allow to dry.

Step 7 |  Glue the chipboard star flourish shape and title in place in the bottom left and top right hand corner.

Step 8 |  Tease out fibres of a strip of white muslin to distress it a little and arrange along the bottom of the inner panel and one third of the way up the sides. Dab on some glue in spots along the strip. Try to manipulate the muslin into undulating waves, like a snow swept landscape. Adhere a strip of white lace to the top edge of the inner panel.

Step 9 |  Cut individual butterflies from a sheet of Hambly White ‘Wings’ transparency and glue them at intervals up the branches of the Prima Rock Candy Ice Green Vine that I am using as my Christmas Tree. Stand the ‘tree’ in the left hand corner of our scene and glue in place.

Step 10 |  Make little presents for under the tree from the patterned papers, using this simple template. This could easily be adapted for rectangular parcels too. Glue them in place at the base of the tree.

Step 11 |  Arrange and glue a number of stars to lengths of cotton or fishing line. When the glue is completely dry, hang and adhere these at staggered lengths and intervals in the top right hand corner. Use a strong glue and allow the dry really well before standing upright.

Step 12 |  Arrange a selection of flowers and bling to the bottom right hand corner of the winter wonderland to complete the picture.

Now, all that’s left to do is fill it full of treats!!

Oh, and here she is set up in pride of place in the front entry, enshrouded in fairy lights and waiting for that magical advent time every night.

Hope your Christmas preparations and shopping are going smoothly.... I'll be back really soon!

Jules
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