And the Countdown Begins

As promised, here I am with my second post of the day.

I would like to share a second Advent Calender with you.  Clearly I did not make this box, I bought this gorgeous cardboard suitcase from ebay.  It is by Jessie Steele and this design is called Pink Roses and Polka Dots.

Whilst I did not make the container I did make all of the little envelopes in the suitcase, one for each day, using my envelope maker.  I have had my envelope maker a long time but, before this, I had only used it to make one envelope.

You can see why the suitcase design is called Pink Roses and Polka Dots.  I love the shape of this case, it reminds me of an hat box.

The case is very sturdy and has a neat faux leather handle.  It is one of a pair, I wonder what I shall use the other one for?

Once they are tidied up, all the envelopes fitted snugly inside the case.  Each envelope has a number on it, this represents the date it should be opened.

Ow, the envelopes are not the only things I made, I also made their contents and I hope to be back tomorrow, and the day after, to show you what each one contains.

Would you like to see the beautiful Advent Calender I received a few days ago?

It is a wonderfully knitted bag with a cuddly Santa attached to the side with red sleigh bells which jingle every time I go near it.

And here is a sneaky peek at all of the fabulous gifts it contains.

It also came with a more traditional Advent Calender featuring Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas, which just happens to be my favourite Christmas film - I try to watch it every Christmas Eve.

I have opened the first little door, it is Father Christmas asleep in bed on Christmas Eve, with his alarm clock about to go off

I have just realised that it is the first tomorrow and I still have my husband's Advent gifts to wrap, I guess I know what I am doing this evening.

Happy Advent.

Dionne

The Holidays are Coming

I know, I know, it has been sooooo long since I last posted anything.

There are several reasons for this, I have been busy knitting Christmas presents for friends and family and I do not think it would be right to post them before the person has received them.  But the main reason I have not been sharing my work with you is because I am still having laptop problems.  The latest in a long line of problems is that the media card reader stopped working so I have been unable to load any of the photographs from my camera.  However, I have treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought a new laptop.  I have not quite worked out all of the functions yet but I have worked out enough to be able to load and edit photographs.

I have a considerable backlog of photographs and, as all crafters know, this is a very busy time of year, but I shall try to write at least one post a day for the next month and to start this roller coaster, this is the first of two posts today.

Regular visitors will recall that every year  I exchange Advent Calenders with my best friend, we have been doing this for many years now and our calenders have become a little out of the ordinary, for instance they contain a small gift for every day for the whole of the month of December and, because I can never find very small items, none of those calendars with tiny drawers for me, my container has to be a little larger than the norm.

For the last couple of years I have made a padded box to put my gifts in.  (You can find the 2015 box by clicking here and the 2016 box by clicking here.)  I have made each box slightly smaller than the previous one so they can be ether stacked or nested.

The boxes are hand stitched around thick card.  In places the fabric can be kept in place with glue, I use Pritt for this, but I only glue around the back where it cannot be seen or where another layer of fabric will cover it.

The lid of the box is padded and the white paper poinsettias are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  These are tacked in place and can easily be removed with a few snips of the scissors.

The outer fabric has a festive theme of holly leaves, it also has metallic elements, (sadly you cannot see this in the photographs), whilst the lining fabric is a plain green in contrast with the outer one.

As you can see, each gift is wrapped and there is a number on each tag, this indicates the day the gift should be opened.

To make things a little more mysterious, the box is topped with a layer of pretty cream shred from Lakeland.

I shall be back later today with my next post.

Dionne