Advent in November: Prepare

The third of the preparation posts for Pause, Ponder and Prepare can be found here.

Originally I was going to make my Advent Study book so that I could store my Advent Calendar in it but after I decided what book to use I decided I would make my Calendar totally separately.   I have been collecting inspiration on Pinterest for quite a while relating to Christmas tags and Advent Calendars.   You can find inspiration for tags here and for Advent Calendars here.

I am using #8 manila tags.  If you live in the UK the best deal on these can be found at Craft Obsessions.

First I decided on a colour scheme and then I gathered together papers, embellishments, ribbons, acrylic paints and anything else I could think of that would be useful.  The papers weren't particularly Christmas related as I decided to use pale blue and pale brown.

I looked in my stash to find a set of 3D letter sets where I had enough numbers to make 1 to 25.  These foam Thickers are just great.

I checked to see that they were the right size and proportion for the tags.

I decided that it would be easier to make all the numbers for the tags at the same time.  It's much easier to have a 'production line' to make them rather than making them each day.

Using my die cutter and some dies and a couple of punches I randomly cut out shapes from the papers I had chosen.  At this point I wasn't thinking too much about how I would assemble these.

I cut pieces of ribbon and sorted out some embellishment.

Then I laid the large circles out and built up the layers.  I stuck the ribbon and the inner circle on each one.   Then I moved them all round until I had the order I wanted to use them in. 

Then I stuck on the letters and the embellishment before trimming the ribbon.

And here's a closeup.

My plan with the tags for the advent calendar is to have one side of the tag decorated as a Christmas decoration with the number on it, with the other side having the Bible verse on it that tells the Christmas story.   I'm planning to put up some ribbon or twine and peg all the tags to it with the numbers facing out and then each day in December turning the tag around.

I have worked on the Christmas decoration side of all the tags making several at once so that they are all ready for November 1st.   Come back tomorrow to see what I have done.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Advent in November: Ponder

The second of the preparation posts for Pause, Ponder and Prepare can be found here.  It looks at how you might use the Advent Study.

In my previous preparation post I talked about getting all my stash together.  Today I want to look at what I shall use for my Advent Study.   I had thought about making an altered book but decided not to.  If you want to find out more about making an altered book there are some posts about it here and here.

Whilst sorting out my stash I found the book I prepared for Diane's Advent Study in 2010.  I had bought a Teresa Collins kit to do Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas in and then decided to incorporate the study.  I made the book and then did nothing with it!

I decided I would use something I already had.  I'm a firm believer in encouraging people to use what they have and not to go out and buy something and so I thought it would be good to practise what I preach.  I had bought a Prima Mixed Media Journal because I liked the one I was given in a workshop with Finnabair.

It doesn't have quite enough pages for 25 double page spreads but then I remembered the other journal and took 2 pages out of that.

I took the journal to pieces by pulling the spiral binding apart very carefully.

And removed the pages.   I am not going to use the plastic wallets that came with it.

Then I put the white and kraft pages alternately.

So then I pondered.  Should I paint the pages?  Use scrapbooking techniques? Use the book to store the Advent Calendar tags in as well as the study?

And then!

And then

I decided I couldn't get my head round all that I needed to do with the Prima journal so went back to the 2010 journal and recycled it with new 2014 tickets and a few changes elsewhere.

First of all I started working on the date tickets.  I used punches to cut out squares, circles and stars.  I did the first 6 pages - you can see what I mean here:

2010

2014

And then I decided I didn't like it.   Do you have problems like these?   The decision making process for a project is the hardest part for me.

I found I still had some of the original kit left and found enough bits to redo the whole ticket bit.

So now I have a complete book ready to go.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

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