Countdown to Christmas

I found this cute project at Create with Connie & Mary.  It was a preview project for the holiday class and Connie originally made it as a Halloween countdown project.  I decided it would be perfect as a Christmas countdown project – but you could use it to countdown all kinds of things – mine as 24 numbers like Connie’s but you could do half and just do a 12 day countdown or find a different size gum pack – I think there are some that might have 14 pieces instead of 12 – that would be perfect for Valentine’s day.  We made this in my Stamper’s Club last month.  Anyway onto my creation.

Here is the front view.  I used Real Red card stock to create the box – you can get the instructions from the Create site (link is above).  I decorated with the Candy Cane Christmas Designer Series paper from the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog.  Unfortunately this cute paper was very popular and is now sold out.  It had two sheets with glitter accents – one is the paper on the front of this project – the red dots are glittered and the other was the striped pattern that had red glitter stripes.

I’m not typically a glitter girl – I don’t like that it gets everywhere – so this paper works for me because it is built in to the paper and there is no mess!  While the paper is now sold out it is also available as a Digital Download for My Digital Studio – so you can still have the patterns but you would have to add your own glitter.

I used the Real Red wide striped ribbon to close this one up.  Stephanie and I made 6 of these over the Thanksgiving break and we used different ribbons on them.  The front is the cute Snow Globe stamp from the Holiday Mini.  I stamped it once in Read Red and cut it out and then stamped it a second time – inked with Baja Breeze ink and then use a Garden Green marker to color the two trees before stamping on the Whisper White card stock.  Punch out with the 1-3/4″ Circle punch and then layered it back on top of the red one.  I did break down and add some Dazzling Diamonds glitter here – just a very little bit – I used the 2-Way glue pen to put some glue on the snowflakes, the top of the house and the trees, and then sprinkled on a little bit of glitter.  Now do you want to see the inside?

When you untie the ribbon and open it up there are two pockets on the inside and in each pocket is a pack of gum.  These packs each have 12 pieces and I used the Calendar Alphabet and Number set to stamp numbers, punch them out with the 1/2″ circle punch and glued them onto each piece.

So I had one for each of my boys.  I gave one to Kyle when I took him back to college last Sunday night.  Then on Wednesday I gave one to Tyler – so he looked at it and said “that’s nice Mom”.  I said “open it”.  And he did and then he closed it and nothing.  I figure he is 17 and it should be obvious what it is right – he hands it back to me and says thanks.  And then says “Mom, I don’t like gum.  I haven’t liked gum since I was like 5 years old.”  What?  How do I not know that – I knew during the time he wore braces he didn’t chew gum because he wasn’t supposed to.  But doesn’t everyone chew gum?  Maybe not all the time but on occasion.  He told me thanks but I could give it to someone else.

So then I had one for Ryan – which I was sort of in a dilemma over anyway because he DOES have braces and can’t chew gum.   My plan A was to find another candy to fit inside the openings – and pop out all the gum, but the other candy in and figure out how to cover it back up with foil or something.  My Plan B thought was to give it to him and then trade him the pieces of gum each day for a mint of something.  But then when Tyler gave me his back I ended up not even bothering to give one to Ryan.  Was that bad? Now I think I’ll give the two to my niece and nephew – they’ll just get them a little late – but I bet they will chew the gum!

Not to worry I have other countdown/advent creations – I just have to get the candy to fill them and another one I’m still creating.  Now my boys will just have to start their countdown a few days late.  I suppose at their age the countdown to Christmas is quiet the same as it was when they were little…..

Let’s continue with Bingo – it’s too early to have a winner yet but from now one there are enough pieces that someone could win at any time.

Here we go with Monika’s Blog Bingo.  This is Round 7!  The group is full and all the cards were emailed out Monday 11/29.   See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.

And now for today’s piece – Here is piece #4–the heart crown from the Family Accessories Too stamp set (stamped in Poppy Parade).