Day 12 - 12 Gifts of Christmas...

So we have finally made it to the 12th Day, and todays Gift is one I have seen about a lot lately (but I hadn't seen so many when I made mine)... have made it slightly different too as I thought it looked neater, it is an

Advent Calendar

I started off with 24 large matchboxes from Tesco, they must have thought I was mad buying so many, and now I dont know what to do with the matches now... but I thought I wouldn't be able to fit anything in the small ones, so big ones it is...

I took the inner and coloured the end in by rubbing 1/2 of them along an Olive Green Ink Pad and the other 1/2 on a Real Red Ink Pad, I then coloured round the edges using the Stampin' Write Markers.

I continued until all of them were coloured and you couldn't see any white when they were put back inside their outer covers.

Next I put double sided tape on the top of the matchboxes...

And stuck six in a row alternating the colours...

I did this 4 times until I had 4 piles of 6 boxes...

I next needed to cover the sides with Patterned Paper and yet again I used Patterned Paper from the I Wish Simply Scrappin Kit... I cut 4 pieces measuring 3 1/4" x 8 "

I used Snail Adhesive to stick them to the boxes...

I stuck them to the left hand side (when you are looking at them)... like this..

I know it looks like the right hand side, but it is definately the left... I did this for all 4 strips.

Next we need to make the base and top. For this I used chipboard and cut it 6 1/4" square. I covered the top of each with patterned paper again from the I Wish Kit and at 6 1.4" square.

I then stuck double sided tape to the top of each of the six columns and stuck them to the top chipboard piece, taking care to make sure they were central...

I did this until all 4 were stuck and they looked like this...

I then stuck the base on making sure the patterned side was the right way up.... and this is the end result..

I next added sticky strips and ribbon to the boxes so that they were easy to open and looked good. I also decorated the top and the sides, plus I stamped the numbers randomly on the boxes using the Square Serif Mini Alphabet and Numbers Stamp Set. The decorations come from the I Wish Kit too...

The Top...

And the sides... all it leaves to do now is to fill the little boxes up with treats, I was also going to put pieces of paper in for things like a trip to cinema etc

I hope some of these Gifts have inspired you to make some of your own, I enjoyed making them and I now have some little gifts to give away to people...

Sorry the posting is a bit late tonight, it is my little boy's sixth birthday, and we have had KFC for Dinner and birthday cake, and had to help him with his new Dinosaur Nintendo DS Game... hopefully we have worn him out and he will now go to sleep.... Here is a picture of him with his brother and Dad (my DH) at my daughters wedding in March... he is the smallest one... doesn't he look smart??

Well that's all for tonight, maybe I will get time to make some Christmas Cards now.... have so many to make and so little time... have a good evening all, take care xx