The past few months have been filled with finding out I'm pregnant with our first baby due in April (it's a boy!) and then subsequently needing major abdominal surgery (me + babe are both fine thankfully) so blogging has been pushed even further down the list.
However, I've been able to put together the advent calendar pictured here while I'm on the road to recovery. It is inspired by this one that I stumbled across on Pinterest, and simply had to try it out myself! (Original blog post for that one is here - scroll down to see the hardware organizer countdown)
The hardware drawers, as suggested in the original post, come from Home Depot and cost about $17. There are only 22 drawers so I just doubled up for three of the days in the larger drawers. I measured the drawers and counted how many of each shape I'd need to cover the front of each drawer, then let my Cameo do the work of cutting out the shapes. The papers and pre-made die cuts are from an old Making Memories collection, Twinkle. The die-cut numbers are from the Silhouette store (here) and cut out on my Cameo. The large snowflakes on the top are also cut by my Cameo and come from a free font I found online, DH Snowflakes. I absolutely love that I can cut out any font with my Cameo! The washi tape on the lip of each drawer is from Michaels, their Recollections line (they call it Craft Tape).
To adhere the premade die cuts I used foam tape to add some dimension, and for the numbers I used a regular glue stick. I used my Tombow temporary adhesive to stick the snowflakes and the shape for each drawer, because after Christmas I plan on repurposing the drawers into some additional storage in my oh-so-messy craft room!
I wanted this calendar to provide something meaningful as well as have a fun element. Each of the drawers currently has two things in it for each day, a Bible reading and an activity. Here are a few for the first week of December:
I made the designs for these shapes in Photoshop Elements then cut them out using my Cameo, which makes it so easy!
I'll also be adding chocolates and other goodies each day (although hubby doesn't know this...yet!)
Happy Advent, everyone. :)
~ Caroline ~
