Advent Box

I promised I'd get back to Christmas today, so I'm getting waaaay back, to Christmas 2008.  I made this advent box last year and posted it to Splitcoast, but I didn't have my blog then, so I figured I'd post it here now.  First let me say.... I did not come up with this box design!  A wonderful lady from my ATC club first taught me how to make this box in a single layer.  As far as the stackable design, there are several versions floating around the web.  I originally saw THIS box on Ella's site (Ella's Craftroom), and this year found a nice little tutorial HERE by Hermine (Hermine's Place).  I used the large kitchen match boxes (not the little ones) so that I could stuff each drawer with goodies for three kiddos - my two nephews and niece.  This was LOTS of fun, but very time-consuming, because I made drawer pulls for each drawer (the simple way... use a circle punch and punch out half circles, big enough to fit a fingertip in to open the drawer), and I covered every surface with patterned paper (the simple way..... just brush some distress ink or paint on each drawer front, and decorate only the larger panels).   I will leave you with a bunch of pictures and a little bit more rambling :).  If you have any questions at all regarding sources, just email me!  I won't bore you all with a list of supplies 20 pages long ;).

Here's a side with one of my favorite Santa stamps, and some Cuttlebug cut snow- flakes.

This side is very matchy-matchy, and the only "blue" side.  Luckily, I don't think my little kiddos will notice the incon- sistency.

I kept the embel- lishments on the top of the box relatively flat, so there would be no worries about smooshing it when stored away for the offseason.

Some detail shots.... I used lots of different items for drawer pulls: pipe cleaners, ribbon, buttons, charms, bells, etc.  You just need to make sure that someone's fingers can actually get hold of the pull, so don't adhere your buttons/charms flat onto the drawer.  I created some lift with an extra button or ribbon knot BEHIND the main bigger button/charm that I wanted to use as the pull.

Here's an open drawer, showing some candies inside.  I used a bell and a snowflake brad on the bottom two drawers.  Note how I stacked a few buttons behind the brad so that it was like a knob.  This brad had very long prongs, and I glued the ends on the inside of the box, and covered them with glue and a scrap of paper to reinforce it.  For the bell, I threaded wire through the back slot, then poked it through the drawer, and through the holes of a button on the inside, then twisted the excess wire and tucked it behind the button (again, to reinforce the pull so that it doesn't pull right through the drawer).

Last picture.... for about half of the drawers, I just stuffed them with candy for the whole family to enjoy.  For the other half, I put in tiny toys, labeled with tiny little tags with the kids' names.  Here is a drawer with three bunches of metallic crayons.  Underneath (not showing), I made up little blank booklets using black craft paper, for use with the metallic crayons.

This year, I sent up some more candy and little toys for mom and dad to stuff the box with.  As a little added addition, I copied a nice, simple version of the Christmas Story from one of my favorite kids' books (The Christmas Star), and divided it into 24 segments.  I then printed it out, and punched out each segment using a tag punch.  I stamped the corresponding number of each segment onto each tag, and threaded red and green ribbons through the top.  Their mama can now add a little tag to each box, and as they read a new part of the Christmas story each day, they can hang up the tag on the tree, or a bulletin board, fridge, etc.

Whew, long post.  Thanks for sticking with me, and happy holiday crafting!