TINSEL TIME ADVENT CALENDAR | with Kathy

 I love an Advent Calendar, and every year I try to make a Doodlebug version!  This year I used the Tinsel Time collection and the Tiny Tinsel Town Doodle Cuts to create a fun, smaller countdown.  Take a peek...

To create my base I used the boxes from the Christmas Advent Calendar SVG by Lori Whitlock.  I sized the boxes from the file down to 75% of their original size and cut/assembled 24 of them.  I stacked them into 3 rows of 8 and covered the outside with the snowflake side of the Tinsel Time paper.  I covered the drawers with the silver side of the Snow Bright Days paper.  I then cut out the countdown numbers from the 6x6 Berry Merry paper and added them to the front of the drawers.  I love the smaller size!

I created a fun town scene on the top of my advent calendar using the Tiny Tinsel Town Doodle Cuts, some petite prints and coordinating Textured Cardstock.  I just adore the sweet little houses.  I wanted them to be lit up (because everything is more fun with lights) so I created a small open sided box to glue to the back of each house.  Inside the box, I added a mini LED light (I will link below).  

The boxes open so that I can drop in the lights and take them out.  I added a tab to make it easier.

I added a scene with Santa and his reindeer using the Mini Icon Stickers.  They were the perfect size!

The fun bottle brush tree icons in the collection inspired me to make one of my own!  I used some wire and some Doodle Twine to create a mini bottle brush tree.  (I followed this tutorial).  I decorated it with some individual Shakers in ladybug, bumblebee and cupcake as well as a star from the Holiday Magic Shaped Sprinkles.  

On each house, I added a bit from the Happy Holiday Shakers to the wreaths... to give them a little decoration!

Now if I can only resist eating all the candy ahead of time!  Have you created any projects using Tinsel Time?  Be sure to tag Doodlebug Design on socials... We love to see your creations!  That's it for me today, thank you for stopping by to peek!

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DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Tinsel Time Collection

Tinsel Time Coordinating Texture Cardstock
Tiny Tinsel Town Doodle Cuts
6x6 Dot Stripe Petite Prints 
6x6 Buffalo Check Woodgrain Petite Prints
6x6 Plaid Polka Dot Petite Prints
6x6 Gingham Linen Petite Prints
Doodle Twine
Shakers (ladybug, bumblebee, cupcake)
Happy Holiday Shakers

OTHER

Sizzix Big Shot
Silhouette Cameo
Advent Calendar SVG

18 gauge wire
cork
White Cardstock
LED Lights

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE - WINTER WONDERLAND | with Karen

When my girls were smaller, one of our favourite traditions during the Christmas season was spending a few minutes together on the couch in the morning with our Advent calendars. Their favourite calendars were the ones that made it a little bit hard to find the actual day, hidden in pictures or patterns. They would get so excited when they finally found the date. So I knew when Doodlebug released an Advent calendar, I wanted to try to capture that "hide and seek" feel.

   

 I also knew that I wanted to see if I could incorporate one of the most elusive "hiding" characters (and my personal favourite Doodlebug character of all time) - the YETI! But we will get to him later! 

   

For this calendar, I used the Winter Wonderland collection. The papers and patterns in this collection are spectacular - no dull winter scenes here. I mixed and matched the patterns, cutting each door at 2 1/4" x2 1/4" each with about 2 doors for each pattern. I then grabbed the Alphabet Soup Puffy stickers for the numbering. On some of the doors, I used contrasting number so they would stick out and be easy to find (like #1 in the photo). But for other doors, I decided to hide the numbers a bit more by using a matching colour and disguising it in the pattern (like door #22 beside door #1). I really love the way the doors turned out. The patterns are amazing and I love that you really need to look to find some of the dates! Mission accomplished.

   

And the best part of this calendar is that you don't have to have any fancy tools to decorate. The scene at the top and embellishments on some of the doors were simply created with the die cuts in the Odds and Ends pack - both the regular Winter Wonderland pack and the Snowflakes pack. Just use some adhesive and you are all set!

 

I did jazz up some of the die cuts by poking holes in them and stringing some small LED light behind the holes. You can see this feature on a couple of trees and along the cabin.

   

 

And then of course, the Yeti! Harry gets to make an appearance here to riding a little gondola to the top of the calendar. I actually took the chimney feature off of the calendar and used it to combine two gondola die cuts (front and back), creating a little box in a rather unusual location for one last special treat. This also gave me a really sturdy way to attach the gondola with a hidden craft stick. I took the picture from this angle so you could see the stick (it pokes down right into the top part of the calendar)...

   

 ...but from the front, with a special placement of some die cut trees, it looks like it is suspended above the mountain. Some more of the LED string complete the look of the cables. While not your traditional advent calendar, I am in love with this version. If you have a favourite Doodlebug collection, don't be afraid to use it on a project like this. There is no wrong collection to use! And trust me, this will not be the last time you see Harry on one of my projects! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs,

BLOG | INSTAGRAM

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar House
 Winter Wonderland collection

Mini jewels - variety of colours
Alphabet Soup Puffy Sticker

OTHER

Adhesive

Craft Sticks

Mini LED lights

Cotton stuffing

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE - GINGERBREAD KISSES | with Brianna

Hey friends!! I am so excited that it's my turn to share how I decorated my Advent Calendar House! I love seeing how everyone is decorating theirs and it's so fun to see different collections and themes being used. You can get so creative with these!! I decided to use the Gingerbread Kisses collection since I have my sweet girl this year and we will be continuing on with all of the fun traditions each day in December. Here's my calendar:

I decided to work on the top of my calendar first, so I measured and cut two pieces of the Pistachio Buffalo Check -Wood Grain paper. Since the front part of the roof is a bit of a unique shape, I measured the bottom (largest straight edge) and cut it into two. Next, I put each piece up against the shape and sort of pushed it against the long diagonal shape of the roof to make an imprint on the paper. Totally not a fancy technique, but it worked just fine! After carefully cutting along that line, I then adhered both pieces down with the wood grain side facing up.

Next, I measured and trimmed out some white cardstock that I planned to adhere to the eaves portion of my roof. I wanted that fun frosting/icing look so I cut into each strip creating a wavy look. Then I added some silver Stickles to the edges for a bit of sparkle. I popped them up on foam tape and adhered it to the edges of my roof. I thought it would be fun to add the train from the Odds & Ends pack and I love how cute it looks!

Next, I got to work on the drawers and cut 2"x2" inch squares using the Swiss Dot Rainbow Petite Prints 6x6 paper pad. I used a 1" inch circle punch to create the notch in the top of each one. After I adhered each one down, I trimmed out the numbers from the Christmas Jammies 12x12 paper and added them to each drawer.

Now it was time for my favorite part... embellishing all of the cute drawers!!! I used the Mini Icons stickers, Puffy Icon stickers and Enamel Dots to embellish. The Mini Icons were the perfect size.

I loved being able to display each sticker/icon and I popped some up on foam tape for a bit of interest. There are so many adorable elements in this collection and this project was definitely perfect to highlight a lot of them.

Here's one last look at this festive advent calendar. I can't wait to fill each drawer up with fun activities to do with my kiddos year after year! I can't wait to see how you decorate yours, please tag me on social media!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope that I've inspired you in some way! See you in my next post friends!

BLOG | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Gingerbread Kisses Collection

Swiss Dot Rainbow Petite Prints

Buffalo Check - Wood Grain Petite Prints

OTHER

White Cardstock

Silver Stickles

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE | with Cynthea

For the past couple of weeks, we've challenged our Design Team to create their own unique versions of our new Advent Calendar House.  But did you know the the Gingerbread Kisses Collection has papers made specifically to embellish the calendar?  All you need to decorate it is a few sheets of paper!

This Gingerbread Kisses - Christmas Jammies paper comes with the 24 boxes, as well as some elements you can use to decorate the "attic" of the Advent Calendar.  You just need to cut the boxes apart,  punch the half circle  using a 1" circle punch and glue them directly to the front of each drawer!  Cynthea used the "b" side of the Christmas jammies paper to cover the attic part of the house, and cut the window pieces to embellish.

You can also dress the Advent Calendar up even more like Cynthea did, just add a few extra embellishments.  She added some other elements from the Gingerbread Kisses collection including the Icon Stickers, Sprinkles & Shaped Sprinkles and some Doodle Pops to the existing designs, popping some up to add dimension!

These few additions make a big impact!  Here are some close-ups!

So whether you use just the Christmas Jammies paper or decide to embellish a bit more, you will get  fabulous results!  This would be a great weekend project with the kiddos, or friends!  Have a great day!

BLOG | INSTAGRAM

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar House

Gingerbread Kisses - Christmas Jammies Double Sided Cardstock (3)

Gingerbread Kisses - Icon Stickers
Gingerbread Kisses Assorted Sprinkles
Peppermint Place Shaped Sprinkles
Gingerbread Kisses Shaped Sprinkles
Gingerbread Trimmings Shaped Sprinkles
An Eye for an Eye Shaped Sprinkles
Deck the Halls DoodlePop
Hello Santa DoodlePop

Christmas Cookies DoodlePop

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE GINGERBREAD KISSES ADVENT CALENDAR | with Tarrah

Are you getting excited for Christmas?! I know I am! What better way to start getting excited than to count down the days with one of the gorgeous new  Advent Calendar Houses! 

With 24 little drawers in the calendar, there are plenty of options to add cute little trinket gifts for each day counting down! I decided to cut into the attic of the house using my craft knife and metal ruler to create some little scenes in the attic. I just love all the gorgeous embellishments in the Gingerbread Kisses collection and used quite a few just in the attic space! I lined the back wall of the attic with the 'Merry and Bright' patterned paper and then added lots of embellishments. I added 3 of the adorable Doodle-Pops including the Candy Cottage one, the Deck the Halls one, the Holiday Treats one and also the Gingerbread Kisses one too! I also added a few die-cut pieces from the Odds and Ends pack. To add some more dimension, I added some of the sprinkles to the tops of the cupcakes etc.

For the chimney, I added some of the 'Gift Wrap' patterned paper around the outside and then added the Hello Santa Doodle-Pop inside the chimney! I also added some of the die-cuts to toothpicks and stuck those in too. On the outside of the chimney, I added a die-cut heart and a puffy Gingerbread man. I covered the outside edges of the house/calendar with the 'Holiday Sprinkles' patterned paper and then added some of the puffy shapes to the joins in the calendar. Around the outside edges I took the pink cardstock and punched some scallops to create a decorative edge. I then added the gorgeous puffy heart shapes to the centres of the scallops. I added the die-cut wreath at the top for some more interest.

For the front of each drawer, I took cardstock in dark pink, lime, aqua and yellow and had my Silhouette Cameo cut out 6 squares of each colour, I then punched a half circle at the top of each square and adhered these on. Next I took the Cookies for Santa paper and punched out 24 scalloped hearts and added craft foam behind them all. I then took the Alphabet Soup Alphabet stickers and added numbers 1 - 24 on each drawer. I did have to improvise for these as I ran out of number 1 and 2! These were all glued on and then I added a small embellishment to each drawer. For the very edge of the house, I glued a paper straw to each side from my stash and glued in candy cane die-cuts at the top of each straw.

I absolutely LOVE how my house/advent calendar turned out and hope I have inspired you with an idea of what to do with your Advent Calendar! Thanks for stopping by today! Happy creating!

BLOG | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar

Gingerbread Kisses collection

Gingerbread Kisses Cardstock Assortment pack

Alphabet Soup stickers in Bon Bon

Puffy Hearts in variety of colours

OTHER

Scallop border punch

Scallop heart punch

1" circle punch

Paper straws

Toothpicks

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE SANTA & REINDEER COUNTDOWN | with Lisa

After Halloween, I'm happy to go right into the Halloween-Christmas transition phase. I'm not the Christmas-starts-on-November-first-kinda-lady, but I'm always happy to start creating with a new collection! This time, we got the amazingly cool Advent Calendar House and I tried to embellish mine as cute as I possibly could... :)

To start  I used acrylic paint to paint the whole thing in Christmas colors with an ombre effect. I let that dry and in the meantime, I machine cut the parts for the Christmas Magic Santa on Reindeer SVG.

When they were done, I assembled them and added details, like cheeks, highlights, scribbled borders... The reindeer also got a gold bow and Santa got some cute little hanging legs, which I made with paper beads.

I added gold glitter paper around the chimney and also added white and gold splatters to the house.

For my drawers, I wanted to add knobs, rather than use the half circle to open.  I cut squares from 4 colors of Sprinkles Petite Prints and adhered them to the drawers, covering the hole. For the draw pulls,  I used different beads and adhered them with hot glue.

I used Abigail, Alphabet Soup and Sunshine Alpha stickers for my box numbers. Then I added two Doodle Pops, enamel stickers, enamel dots and jewels to the drawers.

I hand-cut letters in white cardstock to spell NOEL and added it to the roof.  I also die-cut  big stars in gold to add to the roof as well. The last thing I added is a scalloped  border, using the same gold glitter paper. I also added smoke coming out of the chimney with some fiberfill! Cute!

Now, I only need to fill my house with the cutest little things from Doodlebug and it's ready to go! I hope you have fun decorating your own Advent calendar! :)

YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar House

Gingerbread Kisses Collection

Gold enamel dots from Hello Again

Sprinkles Petite Prints in Cupcake, Swimming Pool, Pistachio and Coral|

Textured Cardstock

Sunshine, Abigail and Alphabet Soup Alphas in Gold

Christmas Magic Santa on Reindeer SVG

OTHER

Beads

Gold Alphas

Gold glitter paper

Fiberfill

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE - GINGERBREAD KISSES CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN | with Miguel

The advent calendar is something very exciting for children and adults, it is the countdown to Christmas Eve and the arrival of Santa Claus!  Doodlebug surprised us with this new Advent Calendar House blank to decorate for the season!

My calendar is decorated with the beautiful Gingerbread kisses collection which consists of a sheet included with the numbered boxes from one to twenty-four to decorate our project.

I cut each square from the sheet and backed it on red cardstock to give it a little more color and then punch with a 1" hole punch to make the half circle at the top, matching each drawer of the calendar.

The top and sides are decorated with papers from the same collection and in the center place this beautiful window with Santa Claus and a very sweet garland, use chit chat and some borders for more decoration.

Thank you for stopping by, I invite you to create your own version of the advent calendar and wait for the arrival of such a beautiful date together with the family. See you soon!

FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar House

Gingerbread Kisses Collection

ADVENT CALENDAR HOUSE GINGERBREAD HOUSE COUNTDOWN | with Kathy

I love a good Advent Calendar.  I've been doing one using every year using  Doodlebug's Christmas collection for as long as I can remember!  So needless to say, I was very excited when we came out with the new Advent Calendar House.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make a gingerbread house version using the new Gingerbread Kisses collection. I modeled it after the gingerbread house in the Gingerbread Lane Doodle Cuts.   I'm so happy with the results, take a peek....

I decided I wanted top open up the attic of the house, but it took me a while to be brave enough to do it, lol!  I cut it open, using an Xacto Knife and a metal ruler, leaving about 1/4" edge.  This gave me a fun space to further decorate!

I lined the inside of the attic with the snowflake side of the Sugarplums paper.  I also made a scalloped roof edge using the Doodlebug Eyelet Lace & Scallop Sizzlet die from Sizzix. I altered a little 3D house from Lori Whitlock's Chirstmas Village Cutting Class, giving it a scalloped roof to make it look like the gingerbread house in the Gingerbread Lane Doodle Cuts.  To add some sparkle and fun, I added a small strand of battery operated fairy lights and some fake snow to the background behind the adorable gingerbread folks from the Odds & Ends Pack.

I wanted the front of the house to look like one solid scene, rather than 24 individually decorated drawers.  I did this by creating my scene as one large piece of paper (measuring 13 1/2" x 9", then cutting it into squares that measured 2 1/4" x 2 1/4 which I glued to the fronts of each drawer.. Once I had the pieces on the drawers, I used an Xacto Knife to cut the half circle drawer pulls.

I love the Holiday Sprinkles paper, it looks like sweet gingerbread!  I used that as the base of my house.  The candy cane stripe sides were done using the edge stickers from the Mini Icons Sticker Sheets.  My window and door frames were done using the sprinkles side of the Cookies for Santa Paper and the door was done using the heart side of the Berry Floral Paper.

I added some Odds & Ends to each side of my door. I also used some Gingerbread Kisses Assortment Sprinkles to decorate my windows and a Peppermint Place Shaped Sprinkle for my doorknob.

I numbered my drawers using the Calendar Number Stickers from the Day to Day Collection.  

 I'm so happy with how this cute little gingerbread house turned out!  I love that the top lights up, it looks so nice when the lights are low!  Now all I have left is to fill the drawers!

Have you played with the new Advent Calendar House?  Be sure to tag Doodlebug on socials, we always love to see your creations!  That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!

BLOG | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

DOODLEBUG PRODUCTS USED

Advent Calendar House
Gingerbread Kisses Collection
Day to Day Calendar Number Stickers
Doodlebug Eyelet Lace & Scallop Sizzlet die from Sizzix

OTHER

House SVG from Lori Whitlock

Xacto Knife
Metal Ruler
Fake Snow
Fairy Lights