Advent Calendar All-Inclusive Kit

Hello, Crafters.

Last year Stampin’ Up! released these fabulous Advent Calendars which come as an all-inclusive kit – you just need to add glue. I bought one and thoroughly enjoyed decorating the boxes. When I showed Sharon – my manicurist – and told her they could be decorated as a home decor idea she was really interested in doing a class with me! Unfortunately, life intruded and we just weren’t able to find a suitable time. When I heard the kits were being carried forward to this year. I was so pleased because I had another opportunity to arrange a class that would be suitable for Sharon. Then COVID happened so it’s all back up in the air again!

Yesterday I saw on a SU demonstrators’ Facebook group, an Advent Calendar that US demo Jan House had made using Designer Series Paper (DSP). Jan had chosen the one sheet in the Trimming the Town DSP pack that features one big picture which includes houses, trees, a road, a car, snow, mountains and people ice-skating on a frozen pond.  Jan’s Advent Calendar looked stunning! After she had covered all the boxes she added some Whisper White die-cut snowflakes along the top row. I don’t know how I managed it but I cut the middle line of DSP about a quarter of an inch too short. It still looks great and I don’t think anyone would turn their nose up at it was offered to them……..especially if the boxes had been filled with goodies! LOL! Please check Jan out on her business page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/In-House-Design-Studio-345866685429021/For me, the only hurdle to get over as far as decorating one of these boxes without using what comes in the kit is working out the sizes of the squares. Unfortunately, they aren’t exact sizes! I’m happy with the width but today I need to sort out the height – I don’t want to make that mistake again!

Yesterday, I ordered the global Box of Sunshine Paper Pumpkin Kit and spent some time watching alternate idea videos on YouTube posted by US demonstrators. The Box of Sunshine was available in the US in June as part of the monthly subscription. Anyway, this has led me to think, can I come up with some alternative ideas for using the die-cuts that come with the Advent Calendar Kit that I haven’t used? Nothing springs to mind because my mind is spinning with different ideas for decorating the advent calendar. I have included a bottle of Tombow in some of the photographs to give you an idea of size if you haven’t bought one of these kits before. In another photograph, I show the back of one of the decorated boxes – the backs are identical to the front!

The beauty of this is that one side of the box can be decorated for Christmas and the reverse side could be decorated as a home decor piece. That’s about it from me today. I look forward to being back with you tomorrow and in the meantime, take care and stay safe. Happy crafting.

JanB xx

PS I’m having trouble adding the products used. I’ll try again later! xx