TE Sneak Peek Day 3: 12 Days of Christmas Calendar

It's the third day of sneak peeks for the October release from Taylored Expressions!!  I have a fun and very easy-to-make Advent calendar for you today.  Everything you see during sneak peek week will be available on Thursday, October 5th. Be sure to check out each of the creative team members' blogs for all of the sneak peeks - starting with the Taylored Expressions blog.  While you are there make sure you check out how you can win a prize!!

I have not been particularly good at creating 3D projects.  I can't draw a straight line, let alone cut and fold them so starting from scratch was a non-starter for me.  However, when products exist that do all of the work for you - simply cut and paste - I love doing it and I LOVE the results.  Here's my 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar.


Each one of those is a Matchbox created from the previously release Matchbox die.  New this month is the Matchy series of dies.  I've used Matchy Santa, Matchy Rudolph and Matchy Elf.  They cut out pieces perfectly shaped to make the little characters on each matchbox.  (Also new is Matchy Penguin and Matchy Snowman.)  There are all absolutely charming!!

The matchbox builds with a nice, tight fit.  Even though these hang sideways, I'm not sure there's anything that small that's heavy enough to cause the inside of the matchbox to slide out. However, I chose to make it a treasure hunt and using my computer, created 1 5/8" x 2 3/8" squares to tuck in the inside.  I gave it a little color with little candies from the new Sweet Season Stamp & Die Combo.  (Our "dancing reindeer" is one of those truly annoying Christmas decorations that dance and sing when you walk by.  We've had him since the kids were little and they will not let me get rid of him even though they are now 17 and 21.)


Here's a close-up of six of the calendar days.

Each piece in the Matchy's comes in their die set.  I colored the top of the Matchbox with a Copic to give them some facial color.  I didn't put Matchy's on every day because I wanted those that were there to stand out.  The other days include snowflakes from the previously released Make a Snowflake and the numbers are from a new set in the the Clearly Planned series, Candy Cane Numbers and their coordinating dies.

FYI - I wandered the aisles of Hobby Lobby and found a myriad of things to use as the top hanger.  The candy cane I used is a tree decoration that hangs vertically.  I just clipped off the hanger and turned it sideways. It's styrofoam so very easy to pin on the ribbon.  But they also had dozens of small plaques that you could glue ribbons on to.  I even looked through the plant picks and the bundles of sticks.  There are so many options to put this together.  Have fun!!

Tomorrow is the big day.  We all have a few more peeks - and the release is available starting at 7 a.m. PST tomorrow!  Be sure to pop over to the TE blog for more peeks and for a chance at prizes!

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