Today I'm sharing a fun home decor project that can be created over the Thanksgiving break, to be ready just in time for the holidays ... a nostalgic vintage advent calendar!
This new calendar by KaiserCraft is top-notch quality MDF board, so it's very sturdy and easy to paint and/or decoupage patterned papers onto it. I did a combination of both AND found the perfect piece of Graphic 45 patterned paper to decorate it with! I ADORE vintage Santas, so this paper was definitely calling my name! Keep in mind, you can certainly customize it as you wish, if vintage Christmas/Santa isn't your thing. I would advise getting two pieces of this Jolly Old St. Nicholas patterned paper if you choose to make one just like this -- just to allow for any possible paper cutting errors (I was certainly glad I had two on hand!). You could also use this calendar as a countdown to the New Year, a monumental birthday, graduation, baby's birth, wedding ... the possibilities are endless!
The calendar is shipped to you flat and unassembled, but is easy to put together. All the pieces are tabbed together and all you need to do is break/bend them apart. I found the Tim Holtz Micro Serrated Scissors did a good job of snipping off those little leftover nubs. The nice thing about it being unassembled, is that it's much easier to paint (I used Studio Acrylic Paint-Dash of Red) and adhere paper to each of the pieces when it's unassembled, rather than trying to paint into each cubby or adhere paper into corners that are difficult to access.
No instructions are included with the calendar and after I put mine together, I found this downloadable instruction sheet at the KaiserCraft site: Advent Calendar Project Sheet. One long, narrow piece of MDF was a little perplexing to me, until I saw the instruction sheet ... it can be glued into place on the bottom of calendar, to help it stand a little straighter/flatter. Otherwise, it has a tendency to tilt forward just a bit.
KaiserCraft advises using a wood glue to adhere the grid pieces in place. I haven't done that yet, since I found once the pieces were painted and/or a wet glue used to apply the papers, the MDF expanded slightly and the pieces fit tighter into their grooves after that. If some pieces are a little too tight fitting, just use a small hammer to tap them into place. It will be simple enough, though, on any of the looser pieces for me to go back and apply glue on the tabs and just fit them back into place.
Above, you can see all the great dimension this calendar has (you can click on any of these photos for a larger detailed view), with an inset shadow-box effect! I hope to find some small three-dimensional items to place on the little "shelf", like maybe a sleigh or reindeer! I adhered some Poinsettia Art Flowers to the poinsettias printed on the paper I used inside the box, to give them added dimension.
I decoupaged the inside shadowbox pieces of MDF with red Graphic 45 paper, Deck the Halls. The outside of the calendar is decoupaged with Graphic 45's gorgeous Carol of the Bells paper.
The chipboard boxes are also shipped flat, but are already scored and quick to fold up. I used a piece of tape to hold the corners together, and then cut a strip of paper 1.5" x 7" to wrap around and decorate the box (placing the seam on the back of the box, adhere with your favorite adhesive; I used a wet fast-drying glue). I found a 3/4" circle punch worked perfectly to cut a notch out of the paper before adhering it to the box. You could also paint the boxes or just leave them natural.
All of the chipboard numbers are also included in the kit ... I left them all in tact on the chipboard sheet and just painted the entire sheet of numbers at once. I thought this would be an easy way to color these, but as I tried punching out the dried numbers, the dried paint kept the numbers adhered to the sheet and did not allow the them to punch out cleanly. In hindsight, a pigment ink pad might have been the better choice to color the numbers, or even airbrushing them with a dark Copic marker color would have worked better.
The small postage-stamp images from the Jolly Old St. Nicholas patterned paper sheet were the perfect size and scale for the box fronts (which are 1.50" square)!
I embellished the boxes with gemstones, pearls, Poinsettia flowers, Dew Drops, and Candy Cane Stickles on some of the chipboard numbers. Here are closeups of the rest of the boxes, 4-9:
Boxes 10-15:
And boxes 16-21:
This project was SO MUCH fun to put together -- I'm already in the holiday spirit! And good grief, the Christmas season begins in just two weeks! These boxes will be the perfect size to place small trinkets, candies, movie tickets, etc., to help my children count down to Christmas and help keep them occupied over the holiday school break. I hope it inspires you to try one, too!
Paper: Graphic 45 Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Carol of the Bells, Deck the Halls patterned papers
Ink: Pigment ink pad, such as Red Pepper would work well
Accessories: KaiserCraft Advent Calendar, Tim Holtz Micro Serrated Scissors, Royal Coat Decoupage Finish, Studio Acrylic Paint-Dash of Red, Sanding Block, Stickles, Poinsettia Art Flowers, Gemstones, Medium Accent Pearls, Mini Dot Creative Candy Twinkle Stickers, Flame Dew Drops
