Advent calendar

Some time ago I gave you a little sneak peek into a huge project I had started, not really knowing whether or not I'd be able to finish it in time for December (this year). I'm extremely pleased to say that I am, in fact, done! :D

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So this big project is... *drum roll* ...my advent calendar! I've scrapped one 12"x12" layout for each day in December up to (and including) Christmas Day and glued them into a canvas-backed book. Similar to a December Daily except I've already made everything and is just showing it off now. ;) Today I'll show you the basic structure of the calendar. Starting Tuesday (December 1st) I'll show you one layout each day until Christmas Day. Today I'm just giving you a sneak peek at all the pages as I had them spread out on my table sorted into the desired order:

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I'm fairly pleased with the overall results! But please forgive the quality of some of these layouts as they come along through December - I've never scrapped anything in my life before this, although I suppose the card making has given me some relevant experience. Some layouts turned out great, some... not so great. It takes all my strength to not go back over some of these layouts and doing them all over again. ;) So, what you'll see are my very first attempts at paper crafting in this format. They won't be shown in the order they were made, as I first made them all and then sorted them in the order I wanted them to be in the calendar.

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I've learned a few things during this: Firstly, 25 scrapbooking pages takes up a lot of space. This is the finished calendar compared to the original base without decoration. Obviously the spine had to go, and I struggled to find something to replace it with. The solution (at the moment) is to use some relatively long strands of ribbon to hold it together when stored, and adding two jump rings to compress the spine when it's displayed to make it stand upright better.

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Secondly, glitter goes everywhere. It's in my face, on my clothes, on my bathroom floor. I'm supposed to be an adult and not a messy four-year-old, but I can't help it. But glitter makes any page pop, so glitter there must be. ;)

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Thirdly, I'm bitten by the bug. I want to make more. More. More! So I suspect that a similar calendar for the rest of the year is coming. Not one layout for each day just yet though, I want to live a little as well. ;) But perhaps one per week? I've already got several photos ready for the task!