Sooo… what tasteful works of homemade Christmas art has Carolyn proudly displayed in the entrance hall to assault the eyes of unsuspecting visitors to our house, hmmm? Oh, a whole bunch of little cardboard icebergs… hmmmm, ok, yeah. “Interesting” decor choice… #kindergartenchic #sohotrightnow
It’s an advent calendar!!
Also; I’ve just looked up what is a group of icebergs called, and it’s an armada. Cool, eh!
So, I saw this cute advent calendar on Burdastyle and couldn’t resist… because I freaking LOVE Christmas! and particularly Christmas crafts and all those fiddly decorative bits and bobs that you get to strew about your house…. maybe I even don’t mind a bit of baking too?! Just a teensy bit…? Maaaaybe #notreally 😉
On the site it’s called an Origami advent calendar, which is perhaps a little bit of a misnomer… because my understanding of “origami” is that there must be no cutting nor any sticking/pasting too, and these cute little contraptions involve both. If not origami though I don’t know what you’d rightly call this kind of construction, actually. Just … making boxes? cutting and pasting little receptacles together? Well, whatever. It’s a free pattern.
I used some card stock that Mum and Dad gave me when they cleaned out their shed…. it was perfectly clean and in very good nick! traced the template and cut out 24 identical shapes. So my icebergs are all the same size. In retrospect, if I was going to do this again (unlikely) or even if I re-use them for next year I would mix it up size-wise by printing out the template in two or more different scales, say 75%, and maybe even also as small as 60% to get a little range of sizes. I think they’d look pretty cool with more of a variety of sizes, but I’m ok with how the arrangement looks for now.
Anyway, let’s be real… it’s the contents that you get excited about, really!
Instead of sealing the boxes completely closed with double-sided tape as recommended, I put tiny strips of velcro on it, so you can open the boxes to get to the sweeties inside without potentially destroying them. See, it took quite a while to make 24 little boxes, like hours! and so I’ll probably re-use them, at least one more year. Hopefully more!
For the numbers, I used my old alphabet/number stamps that I bought many years ago… during my cardmaking phase. I found the boxes can fit up to four Lindt balls, with a bit of manipulation and shoving. Probably Craig and I will be the only ones excited about popping open the daily “iceberg” and counting down until Christmas. Or maybe, just me!
speaking of icebergs… I took these pictures in the vicinity f Le Conte glacier, Alaska, during our trip there this year. So so beautiful!!!
I don’t know if I’ve ever shown here my other, far less trendy, advent calendar, that I made yeeeeeeears ago when the children were little… I seem to recall it was a free pattern too, maybe from the Woman’s Weekly or Better Homes and Gardens something like that.
I still put sweeties into the heart pockets every year and have this year too, although who knows when my children will drop by and eat them?! This one’s a bit “country” but in my own defence that was the hippest of hip decor styles at the time! I know, it’s a bit dated now, but that can’t be helped… if there’s one set-in-stone rule about style, and this goes for decor and fashion; and that’s that what is HOT one year will definitely be NOT in a few years!!
one of the fabrics was designed by a Carolyn somebody, whose name was printed on the selvedge… and I had the brilliant idea of snipping off a “Carolyn” and attaching it to the back, seemed fortuitous at the time. Now I’m mentally apologising to the de-surname-d Carolyn who actually designed the fabric… whoops!
Now, if you’ll excuse me I still have a small avalanche of fabrics awaiting transformation into Christmas gifts and my summer wardrobe, and it’s already the first day of summer so I’d better get cracking…. au revoir!!
I love your armada – and I would be excited opening the boxes too
thanks Kim… and it’s quite fun, looking forward to searching for that day’s box through the stack!
Love these! (It won’t let me post without at least 15 characters, so I’m typing more) They’re really cute. The photos from your trip are stunning as well.
thanks Graca, and for going that little bit extra for more than the required 15 characters too! 😉
So cute! What you’re doing is called pepakura. It’s such a fun and relaxing activity with wonderful results. 🙂
thanks Yvonne! that’s a new word for me… you learn something new every day!
I think that advent calendars that you have when the kids are small will never go out of style because they just belong to the family tradition. We were given a hand-embroidered one when our daughter was born (27 years ago) with 24 teensy-tiny bags for sweets. One bag got lost over the years (we suspect our exchange student, but the case was never solved) but our kids still insisted that I put it up every year. And I love your armada, it looks really cool!
thank you Ulla! and you are so right, things that have been in the family since the children were little take on a sort of magical aura for your children, no matter how outdated they are. Mine wouldn’t forgive me if I threw any of the old things out! That’s pretty sad that you lost one of the bags on your precious heirloom… would it be possible to embroider a new one to replace it?
Yep! Brilliant, both the icebergs and the older calendar. Love that you have icebergs and just realised that of course they’re around in all seasons, probably more so in summer. For now…eek.
thanks Colleen! and yes, our environment is so fragile, the shrinking ice cap is a heartbreaking reality.
What a ‘cool’ idea! jo x
hehe, thanks Jo! xx
Just love these gorgeous icebergs. Thank you so much for inspiring me to get started on the onerous task of preparing my home for Christmas x
thank you Rosa! and good luck with your own preparations 🙂
What an original idea, a new take on the advent calendar and your choice of choc is good too. x
thanks Dianne! we’re kinda addicted to them, but I curb it by only buying them at this time of year 🙂
An armada of icebergs. I love that. It was really smart of you to make them reusable, too!
thanks Becky! xx
Your armada looks cool and modern. I love that the individual icebergs fall down in different positions and therefore are looking quite different, I don’t miss different sizes. What a lovely reminder of your Alaska trip. And your older Advent calendar is so cute!
thank you SaSa! It was fun stacking them up this way and that to look like drifting icebergs on my table… hehe, clearly i have too much time on my hands sometimes 😉
Hey, I’ve got the second Advent Calendar.
I was always going to make it but never did.
If I remember right it came in one of the Craft Guide magazine and was called
“Patchwork Christmas Tree” Or Tree of Hearts. I just had to find it.
How lucky are you too see “icebergs”
wow, that’s amazing Roslyn! it must have come out well over twenty years ago. I have vague memories of shopping for the fabrics and the bells, we were in Adelaide at the time. This sort of quilty, cottage-y crafty stuff was all the rage.. so funny!
Yes you got it right
Maybe one day hmmm
I’m from good old Maroon Territory
The icebergs are fabulous! So calming and elegant.
The older calendar is really lovely – but am I ever glad we’ve moved on from the Better Homes and Gardens | Kountry-Kitchen decor of that era! Though I’m absolutely certain it will be highly fashionable again at some point.
thank you carol baby! Yes, everything old becomes new again at some point 🙂
Wait. You call December 1st the first day of summer?
yes, in Australia we do
Weird. Around here, we don’t call it the first day of winter until the solstice (never made sense to me, but that’s how it’s done.)