Advent Calendar - Final Installment!

Yes! Finally! The last 4 pages of the Christmas Jingle Advent Calendar! WooHoo! If you've been following along all week, thanks for coming back each day. I hope you were able to take away some ideas and inspiration to create your own Advent Calendar or Christmas Scrapbook. I want to thank demo Karin Warner once again for inspiring me (and creating the original to CASE!) to actually do this project. I've been enjoying it on my mantel since Tuesday of this week and I'm so enjoying reading it again each day.

Today is also Friday, which on my blog, means Blogger's Challenge. Our challenge mom, Lisa asked us to do a Christmas ornament or decoration and I think this Advent Calendar fits the decoration category, don't you? So for all the Blogger's Challenge players joining us in the series today, you can view all the other pages by looking at my posts since Monday 11/30.

So, Day 21 above again is very simple, just sponging with some Chocolate Chip ink, some Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon and a Rhinestone Brad in the center of the Sticky Die Cut. Easy Peasy!

On Day 22, I added some of that wide Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon and there is an Old Olive Brad in the center of the die cut, which is mounted on a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock punched with the Scallop Circle Punch. It looks like I sponged this page, but it's just a shadow that I couldn't get out of the camera. The cardstock is just stamped with the ornament from Tree Trimmings.

Loved the quote on Day 23 - have you ever heard that in your house or something similar? The Sticky Die Cut in the lower right corner is one of the layered frames, I just turned the center piece and popped it up on a Stampin' Dimensional.

And the last page is my very favorite because it reminds us of the REAL reason for this wonderful Christmas season, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Here is the calendar side view on the chipboard stand my husband created for me. I used the Post 6 x 6 Page Protectors (which was an accident - I'd meant to order the other ones, but oh, well, what do you do?) It turned out fine though!

The stand is made of the thick chipboard that comes on the back of our Grid Paper - yes, I DO save everything! I will be happy to provide the measurements for you if you e-mail me, I just don't have the exact ones handy right here, right now. The chicken scratch the bottom of the stand shown is my hubby's calculations, and I'm not sure that's what he ended up with.
Anyway, it's covered with Real Red cardstock, glued on with Tombow Glue (great stuff) and then the bottom was glued together with more Tombow.

Once it set, I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes for the book rings and then used more Tombow to glue it together there. I did use binder clips to hold it together overnight so the glue would set up well since it curves slightly at the top.

Other than that, it's all pretty simple!
Some tips if you are recreating this:
I used the Simple Serif Numbers for my dates. They were all punched out with the 1 3/8" Square Punch. I HAD to use my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the double digits so they would look right and fit in that square. They are all layered on 1 3/4" cardstock squares. Day 5 is the only exception and that's punched out with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch and layered on a Sticky Die cut.

I sponged just about everything on the pages including the edges of all the dsp pages because I wanted a more antiqued look - it does show up way better in person than in the photos. You can leave out the sponging if you want a more clean, contemporary look.

Thanks again for stopping by today to have a look-see! Be sure to check out all the other Bloggers Challenge players and see their ornaments and Christmas decor - I know you will be inspired. You can find them by clicking on the icon in my sidebar.
I'll be back tomorrow with another Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge Card! Did you know we are doing a weekly Color Challenge now? Patti Chesky just posted our first one yesterday, and it's so cool! You'll have to check it out!
Have a wonderful day!
~~Robin