Shadow Box Christmas Advent Calendar with Michelle

Hello to all our Couture Creations fans around the world, Michelle here

today, and I am sharing with you a project that I have made with one of Couture Creations brand new Christmas collections releases for this year -

The Gift of Giving collection

and it really will be a Gift of Giving and ongoing, for quite some years to come.

For many years I have made a different type of advent calendar every year and this year is no different, with the exception that this one really has been a labour of love.

You know that I love to make boxes [and I do] ... when you combine different sized boxes together and box them all up in a shadow box, what do you call it? A shadow box advent calendar.

Whilst this idea is not my own and I can't take credit for it, that honour goes to a very special crafter in the paper crafting world - a special lady by the name of Ann Melvin and her blog link can be found here.

I saw Ann's advent calendar some time ago and had it earmarked to make and then when I saw the papers from

Couture Creations, The Gift of Giving collection,

I thought to myself - yes! and so began a labour of love.

Full instructions can be found on Ann's blog together with a video - I suggest that you watch the video in its entirety and perhaps twice, write down the measurements and double check them - why? because I wrote down one of the measurements incorrectly - yes, it happens and I may have made a few more boxes than what I needed to make and one size a little bigger than I needed to make and then they didn't fit in the shadow box ... sometimes we learn the hard way.

These boxes are generously sized and if you were popping choccies in and had two young children, one advent calendar could be shared. Ummmmm ... good luck with that ...

Let me share some more pics and let's have a look at some of the gorgeous papers I used to make my advent calendar.

This paper I have used on the inside of the base of my shadow box ...

I have used this paper around my shadow box frame and to decorate a few of my boxes.

Each box, yes, all 25 of them have been individually measured, cut and scored and my Couture Creations Multi purpose scoreboard has been my best friend during this process.

This background paper was used for some boxes as well to bring a little more of the plain red into my creativity.

And this 'branch' paper was brilliant to cover my boxes with as well.

And it goes without saying that you will see poinsettias pop up on my Christmas creativity - I've had the poinsettia production line going the last few days making my poinsettias.

Instead of making foamiran leaves I've used the holly sprig mini die and green cardstock.

Throw in a little muslin [cheesecloth], some crafting fibres, handmade poinsettias, some True Snow and sparkling dust and my advent calendar boxes came to life.

And just so you know there is a whole lot of die cutting involved with numbering an advent calendar - but it really was so much fun putting it all together.