Can you make something with these wedding cake boxes? My good friend asked me. I’m sure I will think of something I said.
The boxes stayed in storage for years. The idea then came to me. An advent calendar! How many boxes did I have? About 80. That meant 3 advent calendars!
I purchased 3 large canvas from Lincraft, 91 cm x 91 cm (36 in x 36 in) to fit 24, 5.5 cm x 9.5 cm [2 1/4 in x 3 3/4 in] boxes on each canvas.
The next step was to determine the placement of the boxes. My initial plan was a Christmas tree shape, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
But then I thought of a triangle shape so I could fill the inside of the triangle with Christmas sentiments and symbols. I drew an outline of all the boxes on the plastic wrapping.
I attached the boxes with rivets. After all the boxes were secured I removed the plastic wrapping gently.
I cut the numbers and words with my Brother ScanNCut machine. I was so happy I worked out a way so that I could cut words out with my favourite fonts. And enjoyed the process of ‘welding’ the letters to create one piece. And playing around with uppercase/lowercase and rotation on some letters to define the word. Imagine if the ‘I’ was kept at 90 degrees it would be lost between the ‘M’ and the ‘L’.
I enjoyed personalising each one with all their names. And with mine 😉
I also used some crafts punches. I decided to stick the numbers to the boxes with double-sided tape and the words and shapes with Mod Podge .
I created some 3-D baubles with the 2.5cm [1 inch] circles.
So the boxes can be filled again and again and the calendar used year after year.
My BFF and brother’s families loved their new advent calendar.
I love my ‘handmade Christmas’ display. My paper 3D star bunting, my hexie tree, my book tree with quilled lights and quilled decroations – to complement my new addition – our advent calendar.
How have you made your Christmas, handmade?
Carina's Crafts 