Advent Calendar 2012 Finished!

Hello, Friends! Finally, I finished my 2012 Advent Calendar and wanted to share the whole thing with you! Here are the 2nd to last set of tags (yes, two are still not finished and I promise I'll share those next week):

(Click on photos for a larger view)

Tag 12 - I used Gina K Designs Lots of Letters by Melanie Muenchinger to make this Game Nite tag out of faux Scrabble tiles ... such a fun set! I stamped the tile squares and letters with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Gina’s Ivory Layering Weight Cardstock and added the numbers with Copic Chocolate Atyou Spica Glitter Pen. Then I punched them out with a 3/4-inch square punch and popped up with Copic foam tape on the Sandy Beach cardstock tag. I used my Scor-Buddy to score a "game board" on the background. The star center is also from the Lots of Letters stamp set, stamped in Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink. Everything was adhered to an Ocean Mist tag.

Tag 17 - "Let not our hearts be busy inns that have no room for Him" -- beautiful sentiment and Bethleham silhouette is from Gina K Designs' current Merry Little Christmas StampTV Kit. I also used the City of David coordinating Silhouette cut file on which to stamp the city, with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. The sentiment was inked with Memento Markers in Rich Cocoa, Summer Sky and Rhubarb Stalk; Ocean Mist tag.

You can find more details about previous individual tags in these blog posts: Advent Calendar Tags One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

Some general information about all the tags:
The tag bases were made with Gina K’s Sandy Beach Heavy Weight cardstock (I love the warm cream color, not as dark as kraft), layered onto mats of Gina K’s Winter Whimsy Cardstock Assortment (Fresh Asparagus, Red Hot & Ocean Mist). I used a free Silhouette tag cut file that came with my machine, to cut the tags (sized 2.75” x 4.25”). To make the tags a little easier to assemble, all of the numbers were punched (1” circle) out of LilyBee Design 6x6 Tiny Tablet-Christmas Cheer patterned paper, but you could easily cut them with your Silhouette or use chipboard or sticker numbers. The numbers were matted with either Red Hot or Fresh Asparagus punched circles (1.25” circle), layered onto a scalloped circle punch (1.50”).

The back of each tag has a fun holiday tradition our family likes doing each year or a task to help keep us on track for the season, such as:

-Decorate the Christmas tree
-Take family photo for Christmas card
-Hang the mistletoe
-Take each child out Christmas shopping individually for the other members of the family and treat them to lunch or dinner alone with you at the place of their choice.
-Stay in for the evening and enjoy the lighted decorated house and bake cookies.
-Mail Christmas cards
-Go to the church holiday play/program
-Take the whole family on a nature walk and enjoy/appreciate all the Winter season has to offer.
-Family game nite
-Call or visit a friend or loved one that you haven’t seen or spoken to in some time
-Have a holiday party
-Go Christmas caroling
-Go ice skating and drink hot cocoa
-Traditional favorite family holiday movie night at home (The Polar Express)
-Deliver homemade holiday cookies and candy to neighbors
-Drive around looking at Christmas lights
-A kiss (or two!) under the mistletoe Christmas Eve
-Christmas! Remember the reason for the season and celebrate Jesus' birth

Here's the finished calendar in front of the tree the tags will hang on:

Finishing Details:
All of the tags are secured by small wooden clothespins, which hang from floral or picture hanging wire that I stretched across the back of an open picture frame and is secured by picture hanging eye screws. The inside of the frame opening measures 11.50” x 17.50” and this was just an old recycled frame that I spray painted red. The top row of clothespins were hot glued to the frame.

Each day a tag is removed from the Advent Calendar frame and placed on a small Christmas tree as decoration, with the Advent activity (printed on the back of the tags) facing forward. Once the activity has been completed, the tag is turned around so the front is showing.

A closer look at the top rows of tags:

And the bottom rows of tags:

And yes, #18 and #19 are the ones still incomplete! I promise to finish those and show them to you next week!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all of your wonderful comments the past two months I've been making and sharing this project!

Happy Holidays,

Sharon

{Advent Calendar Supplies}

Comments

FANTASTIC!!

Posted by: Brenda | December 08, 2012 at 06:22 PM

I liked this idea so much I made my own. I was inspired by your tags so I just had to try making one. I used the largest die from Spellbinders Labels 11, folded it in half (it makes an open envelope)and tucked a piece of paper with the activity. Again, thanks for the inspiration and Happy Holidays. God Bless.

Posted by: Sylvia Rivera | December 08, 2012 at 06:35 PM

Love, love, love it! Thanks for sharing...

Posted by: Dawn Carlyle | December 08, 2012 at 06:58 PM

I agree with Brenda, FANTASTIC!! Seriously, it is so amazing and a lot of work. I wish I had the energy and creativity to finish this up. What a lovely gift to your family.

Eli

Posted by: Eli | December 08, 2012 at 07:00 PM