With simply paper and creativity anyone can create art


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Christmas Countdown (Pion Design and Scrap That! DT)

With both the Canadian and USA thanksgiving celebrations all done, it's officially the countdown to Christmas now. This year, I decided to give a KaiserCraft advent calendar a try with my gorgeous Pion Design papers (Waiting For Santa 2 Collection). Scrap That! is selling these calendars for only $20 (and also $20 for the Pion paper collection if you want that too). There is still time for you to join in the first of our Christmas / Holiday challenges!

Scrap That! Advent Calendar Challenge:
THE RULES ARE......THERE ARE NO RULES! You are only limited by your imagination and whatever supplies and papers you have to complete your advent calendar. Any theme, any style, any purpose. Heck - it doesn't even have to be Christmas themed. Why not make a cute storage box for beads, or jewelry? Final deadline for all entries is Dec 15th. but if your project is finished before then please email a photo of it to us!

Once all entries are in, the Design Team will each choose their favorite calendar project. Then Scrap That! MEMBERS will vote for their favorite!  The winner will receive a fabulous GRAND PRIZE PACKAGE loaded with scrappy goodness. Email all entries to info@scrapthat.ca (please resize to 500 pixels) please write Scrap That! ADVENT CALENDAR CONTEST as the subject.

We only have TWO advent calendars left, so hurry and order your KaiserCraft Advent Calendar so you can get started... and watch for more details and photos of all the prizes and there will be some incredible goodies to be won!  Email: Lori at friends@scrapthat.ca to order yours today.


OK, so on to the calendar that I made.

It took me/hubby 6-7 hours to complete (spread over 4 days). My husband helped by using a palm sander on the interlocking edges and he spray painted the frame pieces for me, plus both sides of the boxes. Then the next day, I assembled the frame and he gave it one more light mist of paint while I covered the front of the boxes, filed the edges and glued the boxes together. Hubby proceeded to watch football after all his "hard work" on this project, LOL.

On day 3 of this project, I "antiqued" the edges of the boxes with gold liquid pearls and an eye-shadow sponge applicator. The insides are nicely finished as well as the sides of the boxes with the dark brown spray paint. Since I had covered only the front of the boxes, before glueing together I could easily file the paper edges and ink them too for a rustic look. Most people cover the entire box with paper and double sided tape but I wanted an antique "brass" looking finish on the edges so I took the long road in doing these little boxes. On this day, I also used white crackle paint on the numbers and once dry, rubbed a bit of the gold liquid pearls on them to better show the cracks.

On day 4, I made the middle "layout". I didn't permanently glue it in so that I am able to change it later on if I want a different look. I am holding on to an extra set of these Pion papers for this reason. The title is a Dusty Attic piece that I inked with burgundy chalk ink and topped with distress Stickles. The bling is ZVA but... I completely reconstructed it to "fit" how I wanted it to. The pretty berry and poinsettia embellies are from Michaels - in their Christmas section.

It seemed to be the never ending project but my kids LOVE it -  so it was worth the time spent. I still need to spray mod podge the boxes to help preserve them from wear and tear - never ending, LOL!

I really do like how it turned out... but how can you go wrong with these gorgeous Pion Papers? BTW, the color palette inspiration for this project was based on an older TCR palette #77. I adore that inspiration site!

The kiddos are really looking forward to finding treats in the calendar each day :)


11 comments:

Bellaidea said...

Beautiful project and I do admire it was a family project too! I know kids will participate with sweets too :)

Nadia Cannizzo said...

Hi Vicky! This is gorgeous. LOVE it. :o)

Shona said...

ooo a project with hubby too :) hehe...I hope he had fun with it. This is just gorgeous!!!!! I wish I did one now :)

Sandi Smith said...

wow Vicky...definitely worth all the work! BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!

Ana Márquez said...

This is so cute! I love that hidden flower :-) Thanks for show it to us. Hugs!

busymartha said...

This is the most beautiful advent calendar I have seem! I was at a crop yesterday and women were working on these, I have to say, they didn't hold a candle to yours! Marilyn

Valery Klassen said...

This is beautiful Vicky. I too am using the new Pion papers for my advent calendar but hope to get it done for next year! LOL Great job, it's simply gorgeous!

Ava Gavloski said...

Vicky
beautifully done. the color tones are my favorite such a classy keepsake.
ava

Linda Pekrul said...

Absolutely gorgeous!

Di Garling said...

This is absolutely gorgeous Vicky.
Di xx

Robin Shakoor said...

I don't even know where to begin! This is gorgeous! The attention to detail is sheer perfection. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!