Advent Calendar

I've been working on Jill's advent calendar and got side tracked making this one. Jill bought a rustic "house" calendar from Target last year. It has 25 little doors on it and is so cute! She's been busy with her research, work, and family and then the baby is due at the end of December. . .so I'm helping get the calendar ready for Bree. I'm printing the verses, etc to put behind the doors and Jill will add any little candies or surprises.





Last year Beate Johns made an advent calendar using small tins. Her tutorial for it is on Splitcoast Stampers. I think she used the Wilton favor tins that have a clear top. Mine have a solid top. I bought them on clearance a couple of years ago at Wal-Mart and was very happy to finally use them. I found the frame hiding on one of the shelves in the back room of The Shipping Station. It was a display piece for magnets. The paper is not attached to the frame; it's held in place by magnets that are behind each tin.



Most of the patterned paper is from Holiday Treasures designer series. I covered the "25" chipboard with the red with brown polka dots and sanded the edges. The "Days of Christmas" is cut from a set of cuttlebug dies. I decorated the tops with stickers from I Wish Simply Scrappin Kit, rub-ons from Season of Cheer, sizzix snowflakes, and stamped snowflakes.






I used a different set of cuttlebug dies for the numbers. They were the most time consuming part of this whole project. I used a glue pen and am hoping they will stick. If not I will apply a thin layer of Mod-Podge over the top.




On the last tin is baby Jesus! I colored this part of the stamp (from Season of Simple Grace) in chocolate chip and added the star.
Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to put in the tins and who's going to open them. Do you think this is something Gary is going to do?