I have been meaning to do this little make over for a few years. Life got in the way and somehow crafty side projects slide to the bottom of my list quite frequently so it sat in my closet waiting to be given new life. It waited and waited until my friends and I did something smart.
We took it off the to-do list and put it on the calendar.
We all had little ‘making’ projects that we wanted to get to work on, and some Nashville episodes to catch up on and some wine that needed drinking… so we set aside a couple of Wednesday nights and sat around after the kids went to bed and chatted and made things. It was a revelation.
I know we in no way invented this concept, my mom and her friends had ‘sewing’ club for years and years…even though few of them actually sewed anything at all. They all just sat around and chatted and putzed with whatever project they had going on at the time. I suppose this is quite an ancient concept actually. Tribal even. But for me, right now, it was like found time. Plus, it was so much more fun to do with friends than by myself.
Literally, I bought this advent box at least three years ago on clearance after Christmas (at Target, but you can find a bunch of different ones different places..) and loved the idea of it, but the look of it was not really ‘me’. I wanted to make it just a little bit more magical.
So with a can of spray paint, a bunch of scrap patterned paper, some old sheet music, stamps and other ephemera, some modge-podge and a glue gun I set out to transform.
First, I spray painted the whole thing with white primer/paint just to get a blank canvas.
I made a template with a piece of card stock (because the knobs wouldn’t come off) and used that to cut out different squares of paper. I laid the squares out before I glued anything to make sure the color/pattern balance was right. Then went to it with Modge Podge and a brush.
Once the Modge Podge was dry, I stamped the numbers on and added some embellishments and Voila! I finished it just in time for my kids to have no idea what it is for another couple years…
The easy factor was really high for this project, you don’t even have to wait three or four years to do it! I look forward to filling it with bribes treasures and counting down to the big day with Ruby & Graham (and Coach if he’s lucky!) Hope you enjoy!
xo
