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30 Days of Gifts - DAY 12:

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar

by Madeline Fox,LM Design Team

Countdown to Christmas Calendar

by Carol Bates
 

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar by Madeline Fox

Since I intend to use this as an advent calendar, I used Christmas papers, a December “title” and coordinating embellishments for the number magnets. You could also choose non-specific papers and use it as an everyday calendar with 12 interchangeable “titles”, one for each month of the year.

  1. Prepare cookie sheet for paint. Sand surface well, especially if there is a non-stick coating. (The coating will prevent paint from sticking also!)
  2. Paint cookie sheet with either brush-on acrylic paint or Krylon spray paint, applying two thin coats rather than one thick coat. Let dry completely.
  3. Cut assortment of papers. For a 10 X 15 inch cookie sheet, each rectangle should measure 1 5/16” wide by 2” long. You will need 35 rectangles to make a grid of 7 across, 5 down. Ink all paper edges.
  4. Pencil in the grid, remembering to leave room for your month/title at the top of the sheet. Play with paper placement until you get a pleasing arrangement, then adhere rectangles to the cookie sheet using a liquid adhesive (Mod-Podge, acrylic medium, etc.) Print weekdays on Dymo tape or coordinating paper and adhere above each column.
  5. For added durability, coat the entire cookie sheet surface with Mod-Podge, acrylic medium or varnish.
  6. Now for the FUN part! Gather stuff for your date magnets. Go through your “collections” looking for anything that will work in those 1 5/16” by 2” spaces. Use these ideas as starting points:
  1. Add number stickers or rub-ons, cut numbers from paper, and stencil or stamp others. Embellish as desired adding tiny flowers, charms, ribbons, fiber and trim.
  2. Back thinner tags and cards with chipboard for strength then adhere small magnet or magnetic tape strip to each date. Store numbers on the back of the cookie sheet until used.
  3. Use assorted letters to create title(s). If it is to be an advent calendar, adhere “December” directly to the cookie sheet. If you would like to have interchangeable months, adhere letters for each month to chipboard rectangles covered in coordinating paper or cardstock. Store these on the back of the cookie sheet also.
  4. Move a number from the back to the front for each day and Christmas will be here in no time!

 

Countdown to Christmas Calendar by Carol Bates

I started this project by creating the "face" of my calendar. I started with a piece of 12x2 patterned paper (the striped paper in this case). I then printed all the numbers onto coordinating cardstock using my computer. I used a large square punch to cut out each number. I then pen stitched around each square to match the "stitching" on the patterned paper. I arranged the numbers onto the patterned paper and attached with Wonder tape. I then attached a small strip of a coordinating patterned paper to the bottom and topped that off with some velvet ric rac. I used a second coordinating cardstock to cut out all the letters for "Countdown to Christmas" on my Cricut. I attached all those to my patterned papers. I then attached some misc buttons to dress it up a bit more.

Once that was all done, I attached the calendar "face" to a piece of 12 x 12 metal that my husband found at a local home improvement store. I then attached another piece of cardstock to the back of the metal just to cover that up.

I was originally going to use a button with a magnet on the back to move from day to day. But Becky (Pretty Poppy) suggested more of a frame. I dug through my supplies and found a Making Memories metal frame that fit perfectly! I attached magnets to the back and tied on a piece of  velvet ric rac just to "pretty it up" a little.

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