Paper and Fiber Arts: Christmas in July - Countdown to Christmas Advent Card

Hero Arts Presents Background Stamp with Peek A Boo Doors Die to create an Advent Calendar Card

On the one hand, I love Christmas so I think it is great to get a headstart on crafting for the holidays as soon as Christmas is over. On the other hand, I feel a bit overwhelmed if I haven't started crafting holiday gifts and cards by this time of the year. Bearing that in mind, I just made my first Christmas item for this year. It is a Countdown to Christmas Advent Card.

The idea behind this card was actually my 14-year old's as she was watching me stamp, emboss and die cut. She suggested turning the card into an Advent Calendar. I've made many Advent Calendars over the years and here are some posts with a variety of different kinds of creations, here, here, here, and here. The last post has a list of activities that a child or family could do on each day as they count their way to Christmas.

Tim Holtz Sizzix die for numbers and Christmas Greetings Stamps from Hero Arts

This card was considerably more complicated than most of the ones I have been making this month. However, it was fun! And it really did not take a huge amount of time... just some searching for numbers to die-cut that were the right size. It would have been easy to use the Cricut or Silhouette, but I had my Vagabond out and wanted to use that if I could. It turns out the Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlet Mixed Media set pictured above was a perfect match. Adhering 4" wide strips of double-sided adhesive to cardstock made it very easy to cut, peel, and stick the numbers to each of the little doors.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

Today is the last day of both Sizzix and Scrapbook.com's Christmas in July sale. I am posting the links to Scrapbook.com for the current products I used in case you are in the market for any of these things and want to hit up a good sale! Hero Arts Stamps just released their Winter Catalog. You might want to check out their site for inspiration. Here is the list of items that I used: