Matchbox Advent Calender

I fell in love with a christmas tree shaped advent calender in paperchase last year (and being told that i wasn't allowed to spend £20 buying it) i was on the hunt for something similarlly amazing this year. i came across the advent calender from Kaiser crafts whilst flicking through the latest Cards and Papercraft magazine...i have fallen in love again!! however... i don't want to spend alot of money to then have to spend more cash on stuff to decorate it with. i had a quick look around on google and saw a few versions of a 'matchbox advent calender' and thought it was really cute (and a LOT cheaper than the kaiser one) so decided to give it a go. I'm not going to do a step by step tutorial... but i have put on lots of photos. if you have any questions, lemme know, I'll answer them as best i can.

I found using double sided tape worked really well for this project. I'm quite impatient and glue takes too long to dry. lol.

1 layer gives you 12 boxes, so for the 24 you need to make 2 of these layers. you could make this advent calender with boxes you have made yourself to give each box a bit more depth but not only am I impatient, I'm lazy too :) in case you're wondering - I gave all the matches to my friend who is a science teacher... those Bunsen burners don't light themselves!!

I found that covering each tray in paper made them very tight in their box, so I used promarkers to colour the tray so they blended in with the rest of the calender when they were pulled out.

I did originally think of using brads as tiny little handles to open each drawer with...however, I found that if you didn't have longish fingernails to get behind the brad it was quite hard to open!!! so I decided to use bakers twine looped though some holes and knotted in the front. The matchbox itself isn't made of very think card so I reinforced the front of the tray with a strip of thick board and then used my crop-o-dile to punch the holes. 

I used the same technique here for the numbers as I did for colour coding my promarkers. check out the post 'promarker and stamp storage' for details.

I used clear cellotape to attach each stack to the one next to it, I did this on the top and bottom of each set of 3. I think when I make the next one I will cover all around each stack of 3 matchboxes with patterned paper rather than just the exposed side. Although it doesn't look bad, I think by covering all sides in paper will give a neater finish.  

the top and bottom are made out of the same thick board i used to reinforce the trays, cut slightly larger than the matchboxes.

I trimmed the bakers twine down to just behind the knot, giving a neater finish - also I was finding that the longer ones were getting caught in the tray underneath when it was opened and closed :)

so that's my finished advent calender!! I have to say I am VERY happy with how it turned out.... super cute!! 

please leave a comment and let me know what you think!xxxx

"Sing us a Song, You're the Piano Man..." - music inspired card

Hello lovelies!!

I thought i would put up a post about a card that i have just finished making, it's a bespoke card for a customer who wanted a 18th birthday card that had something to do with music. the young lady it is for has achieved grade 8 on the piano so I thought that was a pretty good place to start. 

I used a 12.5x12.5 card and replaced a 5cm strip from the bottom of the card with acetate.

I then cut some black card into 1x3cm strips and some white card into 1.5x5cm strips. these pieces are going to form the piano keys. using some tiny clear gems I created the number 18 on one of the white strips.

I used the acetate for the backing of the piano as the white keys would have been lost stuck to white card and I didn't like the harsh look of the white keys on black paper.  by sticking the keys onto the acetate it meant I could add patterned paper on the inside of the card and add that bit of dimension and interest. the white keys are stuck with double sided tape to the acetate. I don't like the look of craft glue through the acetate so I prefer using the tape, I think it looks alot neater. I stuck the black keys on using foam pads to add some height.

I found a lovely digital stamp background of some music that was perfect for this card. (I have no idea what site it was from - sorry!)  I resized it in Word and stuck it to my card. a few touches here and there, the black strip above the keys and a gem on the sentiment and that's the card done!!

because this card is for an 18th birthday I decided to box it rather than put it in a standard envolope. I love putting cards with matching envolopes/boxes. I think it just adds that something special and finishes the card of perfectly.  this in mind, I used the same digi backing stamp and again, resized it in word to the size of the box lid. I tried to put the box lid through the printer but unfortunately it was too thick so I printed it on paper and then stuck the paper to the lid.

I lined the inside of the box base with a long strip of tissue paper layered over a piece of ribbon  so the card could be wrapped and tied in place.

I finished the whole thing off by adding a name card and another piece of the ribbon that I used inside the box. the ribbon is tied in such a way that it can be removed without undoing it (so that you can write your message in the card without worrying about recreating the bow when your done :)

I think it is beautiful, I couldn't be more pleased at how it turned out. It's a unisex card too - would be great for a male or female!

well peeps... now i have done the card  i think im off to bed. my eyes are aching from working in what feels like a dark cave!!! think a daylight lamp is deffo going on the christmas list this year :)

night all, speak soon.

xxx