Showing posts with label Advent Calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent Calendar. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Advent Cubby Calendar

I have been planning to make this thing forever.  When I went to a November weekend crop with good friends I finally got it done.
Supplies used:
Magical Days #d1552 stamp set,
Sparkle & shine paper packet,
MyCreations Cubby
CTMH cricut Artiste cartridge, button 50 cubby box
Juniper, Ruby, and Slate ink pads as recommended on the zip strip edges of the paper pack.
Sookwang 7mm adhesive tape.
3D foam tape
sparkle bling assortment
2" scallop punch, while supplies last,
1 1/4" circle punch
CTMH Versamat
stamp scrubber  & Spritz cleaner
borrowed 1" and 1 1/4" square punches.

The paper pack and stamp set are  limited seasonal items in the Holidays from the Heart seasonal Idea book.  There is a slight shine in the silver paper print that just doesn't show up until you see it in person.  I used my gypsy and the cubby box image from the CTMH cricut Artiste cartridge, button 50, sized at 2.5" to cut 2 per 12"x12"page.  Then it was time to get on with it, assembly line style.

I was able to crank the papers through the cricut in about 15 minutes to get the cubbies cut.  I saved the waste papers to punch at the crop.  15 minutes punching the patterned papers with the scallop punch.  About 30-45 minutes at the crop scoring the cubby boxes so they would fold nicely.  I tried one without scoring and the folds were not as crisp looking.  Plus scoring made the folding go easier.  Trim & snip the sookwang tape into strips, and  stuck them to the edge of my CTMH Versamat speeded up the job.  When you have to redundantly handle each supply multiple times, in multiple sequences, it adds time, which adds fatigue.  The cubby boxes were assembled in about 30-45 minutes.  Then came the fun part, stamping.  The foam side of the Versamat also helped since I could lay out the solid colour paper scraps, inks, the stamp set, a scrap of paper to stamp off, and the scrubber and just go for it.  I stamped most of each number in different colours on different papers to give more visual options to match to the cubbies.  A few images I liked right away so they didn't get multiple stamped effort.  Punching them out after stamping kept little bits from jumping around.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the ones that were punched then stamped stayed put on the Versamat.  I spent a few minutes aligning them 1-25 on the mat.  It also took some time arranging the cubbies so that there wouldn't be blocks of any one colour overwhelming the whole surface.  I wanted to have a variegated appearance, yet it remained unified because everything coordinated.  I started at the crop at 9am, settled to work by 930am, and was done by lunch at 1230pm.  It really helped to have good friends help with fresh eyes before sticking everything down permanently.  I edged the cubby in a champagne sparkle ink to give it pretty detail.  # 25 got sparkle bling to fancy it up.

Having a plan & kits really made the most of my crop time, but I still over-packed! I'm getting better at pre-planning which really makes the most of it.  Happy scrapping!



Monday, January 9, 2012

Happy New Year!!!

I can still wish everyone a Happy New Year, it is my first post of 2012.  Wow has it ever been Busy with Christmas, NYE festivities, work, life...  blah blah blah, boring.  Onward, I finally photographed the rest of the swap tags to showcase.

Lots of pictures coming, I tried to note blog links to share the talent. Not everyone blogs & I respect that but I won't post nonbloggers identities unless I have been given express permission to.  There were 19 participants, a record for our swaps.  Many generous people did multiple tag entries to help get us to the goal, 25 tags!  Here is the blog post showing the ones I made Christmas swap- tags x 3, and here are the returns from the Christmas tag swap hosted on the  Cricut circle messageboard Canadian, chat.

As always, click on any picture to enlarge. Unless specified, these are all by different people.

These 3 tags are one entry by image_queen.  Aren't they gorgeous?  Looks like she had some real fun playing with variables, they're similar but not the same.  Here's a link to her jeanniecards blog
These 3 tags are one entry by image_queen.  She also sent her cute mini calling card with her tags.
These 6 tags are also one entry by image_queen.  I had a hard time dividing them out, I realized pictures were the best way to show what she did.
Here's a link to GypsyLady's blog, she made the Santa tag.
Gorgeous!
I tried to capture the shine in the embossed ink, but the iridescence of the snowflake tag background was too elusive, trust me, it's lovely!
Here is the embossing of the animal and the pretty but subtle shine & curve of the poinsettia.  The pointsettia tag was created by this blogger, Scrapaholicjen.
These 3 tags were from one person.  The metal charm for the tags on the left hand side had all different words: wishes, jungle, yuletide, Christmas, season, greetings, joyful, merriment, holiday, tradition, SantaClaus, and snowflake.  The centre tag has red fabric.  The right hand tag is a mini snow globe with Santa & his reindeer flying through a snowstorm.  They were all created by ginaballoons
Soooo sweet!
Check out the embossed texture.  Here is the link to the blogger that made the snowman Chasinkeegan
The picture really doesn't do these justice, I did try...  Here is a link to the blogger who created the lil elf tag Ms.Mara.  Here is a link to Scrapperdee's Blog, she created the green Christmas stocking tag.
Are you jealous yet?  Here is the link to the Santa dancing tag Croatiancrafter.
These are from the same person.
I didn't show the backs of all the tags, but I tried to showcase the more unusual ones.
Whew!  I'm ready for a nap.  I never did get them organized into an advent  calendar like I meant to, but I'm all ready for Christmas 2012 now!  I'm so proud to be able to participate in these great swaps.  The talent and sharing is so very inspiring.  Happy New Year everyone!!!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Advent Calendars

December first brings a whole new flurry of winter activities for most families.  Never mind I missed my one year "blogiversary."  A whole year of blogging and I'm happy to have met my goal to learn something new (blogging) and I'm grateful to all my kind followers & great comments.

I'm hosting a Christmas tag swap, but they're not quite all in to share so I will post a few at a time starting with my own over the month of December. I had this great idea to string them along a garland with each one showing family fun ideas for the month of December.  An advent calendar of beauty and function.

Here is the list I've drafted of "things to do" in no particular order.  Feel free to pick & choose what suits your family if you wish to make your own advent calendar.  Yes, there is more than 25 things listed, more fun to do, and who says we have to do just "one" thing a day.  A lot of these ideas were collected form a discussion on the Cricut circle messageboard.  They're too great to not share.


  • Make a list for Santa's Helpers (its hard to give things to people who have everything, give them clues so you get what you need instead of more guesses & clutter)
  • Children can make their letters to Santa
  • Make Christmas cards
  • Make Christmas tags from last year's Christmas cards
  • Prep and send out Xmas cards
  • Go window shopping to see all the gorgeous store displays
  • Go sledding
  • Bake Xmas cookies 
  • Organize or join a recipe swap among your friends & family
  • Wrap Xmas gifts for friends and family
  • Watch TV Xmas specials
  • Clean & donate gently used toys to charity
  • Prep for Santa (Xmas Eve)
  • Make some Christmas or winter crafts, go ahead, make a mess too!
  • Read a Christmas story together
  • Go for a drive to look at holiday lights while dressed in pjamas
  • Visit a nursing home
  • Make a snowman
  • Have a snowball fight
  • Put up the Christmas tree and decorate it
  • Go Christmas caroling or sing Christmas songs
  • Read a Christmas book or a story
  • Make & have some egg-nogg, peppermint hot chocolate with marshmallows, or hot apple cider
  • Sing Christmas carols
  • Telephone Santa, there are some Santa Hotlines where children can leave a message
  • Look at past Christmas pictures
  • Take pictures with Santa
  • Hang stockings
  • Pick your favorite ornament and tell why you like it so much
  • Make an ornament or wreath
  • Choose a new dish to make for Christmas dinner or lunch
  • Eat a candy cane
  • Make reindeer snack mix for Santa's reindeer, recipe ideas via internet
  • Go have annual family photos taken, don't forget the out-takes are good too
  • Make some silly family photos
  • Play board-games, cards
  • Learn a new game
  • Take a walk at night in the snow with your dogs, chased by a hot drink fresh from the crock pot
  • Have a pyjama day
  • Plan a Christmas scavenger hunt
  • Make a donation to charity or food banks
  • Attend Christmas parties
  • Throw a Christmas party
  • Go to community events IE: lighting of the tree; visit nativity displays; candle-light vigils


In case you are wanting to make an advent calendar, this site has a nice collection of great ideas.  Homemade-advent-calendar-roundup  I will update this post if I find any more great collections.  We all know it is important to simply celebrate the season in your own cultural & family way.  We need to spread kindness, this is a tough time of year for many families, winter is hard on everyone.  I have some ideas for January since that is always a tough month of winter.  I invite you to think of & share your ways to make the winter season easier.  There's 45 ideas to get you started, they don't all have to be exclusively for December.

Happy Holidays!