Doodlebug Advent Calendar

Merry Almost-Christmas!!!  I'm so excited!!!

It's finally been snowing here more, and though it's not enough yet to go sledding, it's still enough to get you excited for a white Christmas.  It's freezing, though.  Wouldn't it be cool if it could be 70 degrees and snowy?  

I've been wanting to make this Advent Calendar since I got my Silhouette for Christmas last year.  This was last year's advent calendar sold by Silhouette, and it's great because the boxes are big enough for decent size treats (for those of us with a sweet tooth) or even little gifts.  I made the boxes with white paper because I didn't want to use up all my cute patterned paper where you wouldn't see it, but then I covered the fronts with patterned paper and punched the tab with a 3/4" circle punch.

Even if you can't get one of these Silhouette advent calendars, there are lots of different companies that sell ready-to-embellish advent calendars of all shapes and sizes, some that look a lot like this one.  Just pick one up and then pick up the North Pole collection from Doodlebug, lots of letter stickers, twine, pearls, jewels, and go to town!

I guess this is a lesson in embellishment.  When embellishing something like this I like to stick to a color palette of 3-4 main colors.  That way it won't look more busy than it already will :)  In this case: red, green, white, and grey.

Then just think of ways to add interest by adding the following:
Twine
Jewels
Pearls
Buttons
Brads
Glitter
Stickers
Die Cuts
Number and/or letter stickers
and my favorite thing in the world:  Dimensional foam adhesive

Just make sure you're spreading out your colors evenly, and add texture with crushed velvet number stickers and twine, dimension with dimensional adhesives, and voila!

An advent calendar your kids will go nuts over!

-Tiffany