Showing posts with label Advent calendars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent calendars. Show all posts

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Counting Down to Christmas

 
 Whew!  They're done!!!  I can't decide if I had trouble finding inspiration, if I'm a procrastinator or a little of both but I finished them with a few days to spare!
 
All year, I've wanted to make an Advent Calendar for each family of our young relatives.  Our own kids enjoyed the Hallmark calendar we've had for years and knew these children would too.  It would also be a fun keepsake for these little ones from our family.
 
After looking all over the internet for something I thought I could handle, I happened upon this pattern from Homemade By Jill  from 2011.
 
 
Back then, she had a "Sew Along" encouraging others to make their own versions of an Advent Calendar and post their photos each week in November.  Another blogger, Brooke Reynolds (who previously worked for Martha Stewart Living and MS Kids!) also posted in 2009 about making her family's calendar on her blog, Inchmark.
 
Sooooo, Halloween evening, I got started on my project!
 
It's been fun deciding which ornament designs to use and how to decorate them.  The only real problem I had was there were EIGHT (yes, that's 8) calendars I needed to make!  Between Wonderful Hubby's family and mine, we have eight families with little people so everything I made had to be multiplied!
They were all over the house!
 
 
I decided to make some with a white background and some with red. 
I'm not sure which I like better.
After figuring out the size I wanted the finished product to be, I had to determine the size of each pocket and ornament.  Fortunately, Brooke, from Inchmark, included some templates in her post.  They were great inspiration.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.
 
 
 
Yes, I cheated on a few and bought a couple of ornaments, but only four!
 
I did personalized an ornament for each of our nieces, nephews and cousins.
 
 
 
Precious Daughter helped by stamping the numbers.  I'd never be able to stitch all of those numbers by hand.
 
 
We hope our little relatives have many happy memories of our
2014 Christmas gifts!  This year, they're getting their presents at Thanksgiving so they are ready for December 1st!
 
 

 
 
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