A year early...

Hey,

I thought I would post a 'non card' project...I am always referencing these other things I do..but always forget to take photos!!

Anyway, a couple of years ago when our nephew Otis was 10 months old, I made him an advent calendar to use for Dec 2012 (and many years after that hopefully).

He used it for the first time last year and loved it.

Otis and his advent calendar

So as we now have a niece (Florence) who is Otis' baby sister I thought she should get the same treatment...however this time I learnt some lessons.

1 - do not make the calendar in a rush
2 - do not buy a kit to cheat that ends up being the same amount of work
3 - plan it out better and simplify it

The main photo is the finished calendar. I am very pleased, it has come out beautifully.

How did I do it?
- 2 pieces of plain duck cloth (calico) for the base
- 24 coloured squares (+ 8 extra for the name)
- Felt letters and shapes as required
- Iron-on numbers.

I cut the coloured squares first - 32 in total incl the ones for Florence's name - they measure 7x7 (inches) and I used pinking shears to cut them out. The coloured squares are actually napkins that I bought on sale (8 for $4). I bought napkins instead of actual fat quarters as each napkin is the same size as a fat quarter, so I got a lot of variety in colour and a lot of fabric for a lot less money.

I pinned all the squares to the duck cloth (tedious) - before cutting it, as I wasn't sure how much I would need - being as I decided not to stick to conventional ways of doing things... Cut away the excess and then I stitched all the letters and the stars to the squares, before sewing all the squares to the duck cloth
I used two pieces of the the cloth, as I felt it wasn't substantial enough, but you don't need to do this.

Then I used a decorative stitch to create a border - love this Daisy Chain stitch on my new machine.

The numbers were cut using the Silhouette Portrait and I went off piste here and used iron-on glitter material that is meant to be used in a Cricut...one digital die-cutter is much the same as another...

Iron-on  numbers were the best thing about this calendar, super easy to make and use, will be using more iron-on stuff!

I decided against adding a hanging tab...why? Because I am lazy..

Florence won't get to use it until Dec 2014, but no doubt she will enjoy her's as much as her big Brother enjoys his.

Next project for Florence will be bunting as Otis already has some..

All the Christmas prep has been done, Hubby is working from home and we are playing non-Christmas music, the fur children are asleep on the bed and all the presents are wrapped.

Happy Christmas everyone..see you later in the week.

Cx