So Stinkin' Cute!

... And just a little bit proud of myself!! Okay, a lot!

I am not a fan of mini-albums. I like them, other people's mini albums look awesome. I have made my fair share of them and they look awesome. But what do you DO with them? My Mum refers to knick knacks as dust collectors. I refer to mini albums as dust collectors. They just sit in the closet, collecting dust. I suppose I could move them to the bookshelf that houses the scrapbook albums. But they don't fit nice and neatly as my Type A (note the highlight, bolded and underlined) personality would have them be...

So when asked to make altered art or a project, most designers resort to mini albums. Or choose to make them and do so with gay abandon. Not this gal!! Practical. I need something practical and usable. This my friends and followers, is what I do when asked to create a project.

I LOVE it! We never have enough advent calendars in our house. The kids are always fighting over them and whose turn it is. "No, it's my turn! You did it yesterday!" Sound familiar? And the more interactive it is the better!

See the little pages that you tear off as the days fly by? I have a little tutorial as to the making of this fun little element to share. It's not difficult at all. Do you remember this thing?

It's a perforating blade!! It came with your trimmer more than likely. Mine did. It's been sitting in the nifty little blade storer for... umm... 6 years. Unused. Well now you have a great use for it! If you didn't get one, don't worry, I've seen them in the big box stores next to the trimmers. Not sure about the portable slide trimmers. I've only seen it as a rotary blade. I know I have one for my smaller Fiskars portable trimmer.

Gather your supplies;

light weight paper (not cardstock, I just used printer paper)
perforating blade
trimmer
ruler
Xacto blade
cutting mat
wet glue (I used a Zig glue pen)

Now that you've gathered your supplies, first things first. You will need to remove your cutting blade and insert the perforating blade.

Perforate the length of a piece of letter size paper a 1/4 inch from the edge. Repeat on the opposite edge of the length of the paper.
Using your Xacto, or another trimmer, trim 1.5 inches from each outside edge.
Now cut each strip 2 inches wide. You ought to have a bunch of rectangles measuring 1.5 x 2 inches with a perforated line 1/4 inch down from the top of a long side of the triangle.
Number each one in the manner you choose. I used stickers and stamps.
Find an object that has a right angle so as to be able to glue the papers together neatly. I used a small container that I store my Distress ink pads in.
Put your last piece of paper down into the right angle. If you have a sharp angle in the corner it would allow for better alignment.
Apply wet glue ABOVE the perforation (the smaller strip of paper)
Perfectly line up the next date on top, lightly pressing to seal bond tighter.
Repeat until all 25 days make one neat interactive pile.

I actually did mine in two batches of 10 and a batch of 5. I'm a perfectionist, of sorts. Please refer to the personality type!! I then put the three piles together. Voila!! Your own countdown, interactive calendar!

Each day a child (or adult) can rip off one page. I didn't have enough number stickers to make the whole thing so settled for a Love, Elsie number stamp set that has long been yearning for it's moment.

Christmas day!! Yippeee!! And, if I want, it is reusable. Just slide out the backing and insert a new one next year. Given the wood frame cost me a dollar at AC Moore, I don't know that I will. I might need a new theme!

Mr Gingerbread man is created with a Tim Holtz die, Liquid Applique for the eyes and mouth (love that stuff!), Stickles on the arm and leg icing, sequins and Doodlebug birthday brads. The banner and bits for the mouth and candy are Doodlebug Valentine's stickers while the green trim is from a Doodlebug card. See, you don't have to stick to one line! Mixing and matching works superbly with Doodlebug!

The wrapper on that candy is scrunched up tissue paper and tulle!

Not that I care to rush either Halloween or Thanksgiving but I can't wait to see how much fun the kids have ripping of the days as we count down to Christmas!

Have you created anything for the upcoming Christmas holiday's yet? I'd love to see!