Christmas Advent Calender

I had seen this made by a member in Cutters Creek group. I thought this was an amazing idea and couldn't wait to share this with all of you.  This was designed by Tracie Hudson and here is where the original tutorial is found http://www.bubblyfunk.co.uk/tracie-hudson-christmas-advent-a-39.html. I cannot wait to try this and plan on making them for next year for family members. Enjoy!!

Christmas Advent

Materials Required:

24 small matchboxes
One 12x12 sheet of Christmas themed patterned paper - I used Carolees Creations Scarf Stripe - although off cuts of coordinating papers would work fine
24 metal brads
Christmas themed Chipboard pieces - I used Melissa Frances Christmas Glitter Shapes
8 inches of 1 inch wide spotted ribbon to coordinate with your papers
Rik Rak in coordinating colours to match with your papers
Two 4x4inch squares of thick chipboard or mountboard
Number rubons - I used Doodlebug all mixed up small numbers or you can use stamps (the Stamps Away acrylic Swirly Uppercase alphabet have lovely numbers too)
Acrylic paint to coordinate
Black doodling pen
Strong double sided tape
Wet Adhesive

I wanted to create an alternative Advent style gift for one of my children and decided to use matchboxes as they are the perfect size to hide a tiny daily treat!

Using a strong double sided tape, I adhered three match boxes one on top of another until I had eight stacks in total – this gives 24 drawers – perfect for my advent themed project.

Acrylic paint was used to cover all areas, including the inside of the drawers.

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry I covered two pieces piece of chipboard, measuring 4 x 4 inches, with patterned paper.

Once the matchbox towers were dry I started to assemble my matchbox cabinet.
Its best to sit the boxes in place and check they are in the right direction before adhereing to the base.
Your matchbox towers need to sit as shown in the diagram below

They should look like this -

Once you are happy with their position adhere all boxes in place to form the body of your cabinet.
Alternating the direction in which the boxes sit on the chipboard base gives space for decorative paper, photographs or embellishments to be added to the project.

I covered another 4x4 inch piece of chipboard with patterned paper and before finally adhereing in place, I cut two lengths of ribbon 4inches long and tied them together forming a decorative knot.

The lose ends were then adhered to the underneath of the mountboard using double sided tape and additional embellishments added.

 

This decorated chipboard piece is then adhered to the top of the stacked match boxes to form a lid.

Brads and ribbon were used to create “handles” by threading the brads through the Rik Rak before attaching to the "drawer" fronts.

I used off cuts of paper to form drawer liners and doodled for added effect.
Using rubons I was able to number each drawer and I used a fine line black pen to add doodled stitching.

This tower of small drawers makes a perfect alternative to the more traditional advent calendar but could also be used as a decorative storage solution for your tiny scrapping treasures.

Copyright - Christmas Advent – Tracie Hudson©2007 for Bubbly Funk