Sleeps till Christmas Advent - Tutorial 7

 Hi Everyone

Well I seem to be in the Christmas crafting mood recently and there's no stopping me, I love Christmas anyway but after buying the festive chalkboard kit form Craftwork cards I've gone a bit Christmas crazy.

I wanted to make a advent type of thing but wanted something that could be used year after year so came up with a desktop advent, here's how I made it......(there are a couple of pictures missing but thankfully they weren't the important ones)

I wanted this to be a project that stood the test of time so decided it should be made from wood but if you wanted to you could make one from another material like polystyrene or sturdy card.

I cut 2 wooden blocks measuring 3.5cm and then sprayed them gold, originally I was going to cover them with patterned papers but my numbers didn't stand out enough so gold it is

I then cut a block of wood measuring 10x10x4cm, I made a groove in the back for the back board to stand in and then gouged out a slope for the wooden blocks to sit in, this was done with a hammer and chisel, then I sanded them all over.

I also cut a piece of hardboard to 10x12cm and a small piece of wood to use as a wedge

Next was the bit that hurt my brain the most, working out what numbers needed to go on each cube, now I am sure there is something on the internet that would have given me the answer but I got my pen and paper out and worked out that 1 block should have;  0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7  and the other should have 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8

I used some black glitter number stickers available from the range

I added these to the blocks

Next I tried everything in place before decorating 

I wanted to use the Festive chalkboard papers form Craftwrk Cards, the sign post paper was my choice

I painted the back board with black paint and  cut it out the signs and glued it to the board when dry, for added protection I used a matt varnish as a top coat.

I also painted the base in black too

I thought the black base was far to bare and wanted it to match in with the rest of the project so cut some embelishments from scraps of the same paper pad.

 gluee dthem on with a strong glue and then used a white pen to add little white dots to resemble snow

I decided that the number blocks need to be edged in black promarker to make them pop a bit more

I know not everyone will be comfortable with a saw or chisel when making this project so I would love to see you own take on it.

I still have a few more advent projects that I am working on so watch this space  Tx 

#advent #cwc #christmas #craft #tutorial #homeiswherethecraftis