Silhouette Limited Edition Advent Calendar

How many of you own a Silhouette? And how many of you have seen the NEW Limited Edition Advent Calendar?

The 2011 Silhouette limited edition advent calendar is the best way to use your Silhouette to count down to Christmas. The calendar is a 15" wood shadowbox which includes a special download card redeemable for 25 boxes and drawers from the Silhouette Online Store. Each box and drawer template is downloaded automatically into My Library and is pre-sized and labeled for each compartment of your shadowbox advent calendar. Fill each box or drawer with a holiday message or a little treat and enjoy the holiday season.

Silhouette was generous enough to send one of their new Advent Calendars to us, so that we could pair it up with Bella's products. I was the lucky one that got to play with this, and I'm excited to share my finished project with you today.

Christmas Wishes Advent Calendar, by Laura Vegas.

I have a little advent calendar, that I decorated and embellished a few years ago. It's cute. But it's tiny. Maybe 8x8 in size. So the very first thing that I noticed when I opened up the box, was how large this calendar was. I LOVE that it's big and heavy, which shows some great quality. I started out by using my download card, to load all my shapes into my library. Then I had to decide if I was going to use the boxes or the drawers, for my calendar. I love the look of the boxes. All the different shapes and sizes are adorable. But in the end, I decided to go with the drawers. 

All the shapes are labeled with exactly what numbered spot on the calendar they go too. So if you want to fill spot #17, you just pull up either the box or the drawer that say #17. They are all sized already, so there's no adjusting or resizing needed. You just pick your papers, and cut. 

The Silhouette makes these little pierced dots in all the spots that the paper will need to be folded over. It "scores" the paper, basically. The drawer comes out in one or two pieces. Most are one full piece, but there are a few larger drawers, that do require 2 cuts that are then pieced together.

Once your papers are cut, you fold the papers along the perforated lines, and then add some adhesive to the folds to hold the drawer together. Once cut, it takes about 30 seconds to turn your paper into this cute drawer.

There is some thinking involved, if you want your colors and patterns of paper to be evenly spread out, within the calendar. I started with the largest drawers, using the yellow pattern paper, polka dot pattern paper, and the striped pattern paper. Once I cut a drawer from one paper, I picked two more drawers to cut from that same paper, in different areas of the calendar. I just made sure to spread out the green papers, the red papers, etc. Once you start slipping your finished drawers into the calendar base, you will really be able to get a feel for what color or pattern you need more of, or where you need to spread things out more.

The package says that you will need between 25-50 sheets of paper to complete the calendar. I'm guessing that I used about 30 sheets of paper for all the drawers. Although I still have lots of left overs, since I cut my papers down to 8 inches wide, to fit my cutting mat. I have a ton of 4x12 pieces left, that I pulled from for decorating my drawers.

Then it's time to embellish the fronts of your drawers. I knew I wanted to add the number of each opening, to the front of the drawers. I used a mix of the Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers and the Quattrofina Alpha Stickers.

For some of the drawers, I just added my letter stickers to spell out the number, directly on the drawer front. For some, I punched out circles and scalloped circles, and layered them together, adding some machine stitching around the circle before adding my chipboard numbers.

For some, I cut little flag banners from cardstock and pattern paper, machine stitched along the top, and then added my letter or number stickers. All those pieces were adhered to the fronts of the drawers as I went along, so that I could spread out the fonts and colors of stickers that I was using.

I also had my extra stickers sheets from the Christmas Wishes collection pulled out, that I thought maybe I could add bits and pieces from. But in the end, I decided that just the numbers were all I needed for my calendar. This is personal preference though. It would be fun to add lots of other embellishments to these drawers. But the simpler look will go well with my holiday decor.

I had this last minute though to tie some brown ribbon around the entire calendar, and have a large fun bow on the top. Since it was last minute, I'll have to pick up a nice, thick brown ribbon, the next time I'm out at the craft store. The only thing I had on hand, was this brown sheer ribbon, which didn't quite work. But it gives you an idea of what I'm shooting for.

And the finished drawers are all ready for filling, with candies and treats for the 25 days of Christmas. I love all the different sizes, since they will be perfect for a wide variety of little treats.

Silhouette is offering our blog readers a special offer on their Limited Edition Advent Calendar. This promotion runs from today, November 1st, thru November 11th. If you use the code BELLA, you can get the Advent Calendar for only $29.99 (a savings of $10), for the promotional period. This is such a great quality calendar, that it will last you years and years, making this a great value!

Make sure and stop by the Silhouette Blog too, where you can find links to more Advent Calendars that were created for this promotional event!

Comments

[kathy skou]

I LOVE how the boxes are all different shapes... so cute!

[Kathy Martin]

Fantastic! Love this advant calendar, Stephanie! Bella looks good on it! :)

[Julie Tucker-Wolek]

This is AMAZING!! I loveeeeeeeee it! :):):):):):):):):):):)

[Brook Stewart]

This is absolutely fantastic Laura!!! Makes me wish I had a silhouette--Maybe for CHristmas! ;)

[susan hunt]

Absolutely the cutest thing!!Gotta get me one!!

[Danielle]

This is such a great idea!! Love it! TFS

[Mandy Szeto]

very cute!

[Michelle]

A very fun project! I love the playfulness of the Christmas line you used!!

[morgan]

Laura, this is fantastic! Great job! This totally makes me want to make an advent calendar. Thanks for inspiring me! :)

[gretchen]

oh wow!! this is fantastic Laura!!

[Carla]

Girl, I love the way u did the numbers! And thanks for the advice on picking the colors! Very helpful! This is such a great project and it looks like so much fun!

[Wendy Morris]

oh so FAB.u.loussss Laura!!! :)