The Maui Stamper

It’s not that long until the first week of Advent.  When my children were small, we always bought an Advent Calendar with the little windows that opened to reveal an image.  Each night, one of them would open that little window at dinnertime and Christmas would move one day closer.

They’re big kids now, but I still look forward to counting down the days until Christmas.  This year we’ll be celebrating it in Perth with my oldest daughter and her fiance – YES, they are officially engaged!!  We are thrilled, and can’t wait to have the whole family together in Australia.  My poor Sara will be flying from Boston – that’s 31 hours of travel time.  But it’s WORTH IT to all be together – right, Sara?

Back to Advent Calendars…on the plane home from Convention, Cheryl and I carefully studied the brand new Holiday Mini catalogs we were given.  We both loved the Advent Calendar on page 36 made with the 25 and Counting stamp set, but we wanted it to have a place to put stuff – notes, or Scripture verses, or treats, or whatever.  Making each date a window would make it too big, and we tried to figure out a way to make it work.  I promised to keep at it, and to offer it as a class if I came up with a workable idea.

It took a lot of fiddling and a few unsatisfactory attempts before I created what we were looking for:

Imagine this hanging on your wall with a GINORMOUS red ribbon!

My version of the Advent Calendar uses the new 25 and Counting Stamp set, the Peekaboo Frames Bigz die, and more paper, stamps, and embellishments than you can shake a stick at!  It’s mounted on a painted Artist Board – much cheaper than canvas, and available in many sizes.  There are pairs of Antique Brads attached to the board (that Crop-a-dile really does cut through ANYTHING) and the little envelopes from the Bitty Boxes and Envelope Bigz die are attached to a hemp twine line with our tiny clothespins.

If you would like to make one, I’m offering a class – yes, here on Maui – on Sunday, November 13.  I only have room for 10 people, and details are on my events calendar at my Online Store.  I’d love to have you join us!