Monday 1 November 2010

Its beginning to look alot like christmas.....

So today begins the first post that features Christmas as both my DT's have Christmas themes and the projects i made at my craft club retreat were both Christmas.

So today is the Vanilla Sugar reveal and i can finally show you my finished advent calendar. This was a real labour of love as it took me about 3 weeks just painting, gluing and decorating.

Here is the construction.



I began by adding bigger fronts to the match boxes, this means that the secret gift can be a touch bigger.





Next take a long piece of chipboard. Divide it into segments with smaller pieces of chipboard. Each compartment needs to be quite snug. The bottom row has 7 boxes. Repeat the process with each row. The next row has 6 boxes, the next has 5, the next has 4, the next has 2 and the last just 1 box. Once you have all your rows complete, start gluing them together to form your triangle shape.





Make long strips of plain chipboard again and add them to the sides of the frame. Fill in the little triangle gaps along the side edges. Once fully constructed, paint the frame and boxes black.





Next i added matts and patterned paper to the boxes and frame with the edges distressed with viva gold. I stamped all the draw fronts at the same time.



Here it is finally finished.











I love how it turned out and it was very therapeutic constructing it.

TFL

Sarah

8 comments:

Kirsti said...

OMG Sarah...this is gorgeous!!! Love it and well worth the labour!!...xx

Kat said...

This is amazing Sarah. What a lot of work but well worth it. It looks great and you'll have it for a long time.

Kat x

misteejay said...

Just stunning, love the colours you have used as they make it look very lush & classy.

Toni :o)

Kath Stewart said...

wow sarah this is amazing and very very gorgeous....a true keepsake....a labour of love...hugs kath xxx

Jane said...

WOW Sarah this is stunning! I don't think I would have had the patience to sit and paint all those little boxes!
Well Done!
x

Sue said...

that is so very clever - amazing

sparklygirl-Tina said...

Wow Sarah that is fantastic - what a construction - but I bet your sense of achievement is way up high!

Tina
X

Ali said...

You just have *the* most amazing ideas and your work is always so detailed and pretty. I LOVE this and can only imagine the amount of work that went into it! I adore the aged, antiquey feel to it with the colours and papers you've used.