Advent calendar

Good Morning everyone

This is a type heavy post so you may want a nice cup of tea, coffee, hot cocoa or even glass of mulled wine😁

Every year i refill advent calendars that i made for my 5 nieces and they love them and get so excited to see what each day contains - sometimes a sweet treat, sometimes something fun, or crafty or even sometimes something educational, this is their Christmas present from me and I think gives me as much pleasure to do as they get from opening them each day in December.

When I saw these mdf advent calendars at 'The works' I thought I would do one for my mum.  Well its been a real mission and issue after issue so Im quite glad to see the back of it to be honest but I know I will enjoy collecting little gifts throughout the year to refill it hopefully for many years to come for my mum. 

Overall size is:  17x17"    The inset scene area is: 12x12"

Now on arrival One side was not attached at the bottom so i glued it back together along with a couple of the drawers that the fronts had fallen off and I took all the drawers out assuming them were all the same size - on putting them back i soon found that wasn't the case and after alot of trial I found out which draw fit which slot and wrote the numbers on both to make easier another time!  A few of the drawers were really tight so i had to sand them, I would have liked to paint the whole drawer inside and out but due to being so tight i didn't want the mdf to swell too much so i have just decorated the front of each draw.

I covered the front of each draw with various snippets of Christmas papers - ideal for all the little scraps so they come from a variety of papers, i just made sure they were all in shades of red and greens.  I cut around the handle notch in the top of each drawer and then inked all the edges with white gesso and coated with glossy mod podge to seal and help keep it fresh and clean each year.  

The back removes from the middle inset area, so i added a fabulous paper that came in a 12x12 paper pad from the works and is a lovely snowy tree scene which i thought was ideal background for my snow scene.  I added a set of cheap fairy lights i had from poundland around the square - the micro ones would work better but I didn't have any so these had to do! 

 I gave it a coat of mod podge.  To the bottom of inset i added texture paste with foam balls and faux snow flakes included, coated with white gesso.  

From my stash collected over the years I added a large wire brush tree and some smaller brush trees.  To the big one i added these little fairy little buttons and some faux snow and glitter. 

I paint some wooden snowflakes with white gesso, added a little glitter glue and adhered them to the back panel.

I added a little white fence to the back, leaving a space so it looks like you are going into a park or similar.  I added a little black plastic lamppost which id added a little texture paste 'snow' and a little sledge - the kids have run off into the park to explore the winter wonderland😀

I added faux foliage, real medium and small pine cones and some red berries to frame the scene.  I used red beads for the berries in different finishes so they catch the lights. 

This shows where i wrote the numbers for each drawer on the bottom of the drawer and in the slots so that makes it easier to replace them in the future

Now another big issue was that after decorating the drawers and putting them back in, I really struggled to get them out with the handle notches and realised that my mum who has bad arthritis in her fingers would really struggle so I decided to add little handles to make it much easier to pull them out so she can hopefully manage for many years to come.  

 I only decided this after i had die cut and added the numerals to the middle of each drawer so i punched 1" circles from more scraps of paper to cover up the numerals and add my handles. I then used smaller numeral dies to die cut the numbers again from white and add - these are alot smaller than the original numbers.  Where the numbers didn't stand out very clearly on the busier papers i went around them with a black find liner pen.

These little handles were an ebay find, they are on very long brads which were long enough for the 5mm mdf front, however for longevity and as some of the draws are so tight i also added a good blob of pinflair glue gel behind the metal piece on the front to really hold them in place.  Of course if you don't have a dust allergy and are able to use an electric sander you could easily sand all the drawers to make it so much easier.

Showing it all lit up.  I gave the whole advent a coat of white gesso and then white pearl dora paints which are really shimmery.  On the top of the advent i added a little texture paste and more of the dora paints for a snowy effect.  The whole unit was varnished so will keep it dust and dirt free over the years. 

This is how it looked before i decided it needed extra handles on the drawers.  Having now filled the little drawers with goodies I know i made the right decision as so much easier to get them in and out so my mum can use them with ease.  

I am glad I preserved with this - at one point i was ready to put it on the fire!!!  But its taken so much longer and been way more stressful than it should have been.   I certainly wouldn't buy another one of this style. 

Hopefully mum loves it!

Id love to enter the following:

  

https://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2024/11/traditional-christmas.html

https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

 

https://peaceonearthchristmas.blogspot.com/2024/11/peace-on-earth-challenge-76.html

https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com/2024/11/welcome-to-creative-artiste-challenge.html

https://lovethoseprettypapers.blogspot.com/2024/11/atg-using-pretty-patterned-paper.html

https://thehollyandivychallenge.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-173-anything-christmas-goes.html