fun halloween craft project

i saw this adorable advent calendar on tv and really wanted to try it. it was so easy to put together and looks so fun on our piano. go to this website for the instructions. they tell you to buy their paper products, which are really cute, but i used things i already had from my scrapbooking supplies. i enjoyed doing it, and thinking up a new little theme for each day. it only took a few hours to do. (i spread it out over two days.)

this is the whole calendar, finished. i kept the background sheets black instead of adding orange paper on the top the way they did in the original. it saved paper and i think it looks better. but i like black better than orange anyway.

the individual panels for the days are below. instead of using stick-on lettering like the pattern says to, i used my printer and printed the numbers (and also the title, HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN) onto orange cardstock. i made it so that when they printed out i could cut them in a way that the numbers would be in a different place on each square, the way they are in the original pattern. as far as the little designs on each one goes, i drew my own and cut out my own embellishments. i didn't buy any of them. (i used the newest stampin' up catalogue as a reference for some of the drawings. i also used the original pattern as a reference.) i had three or four sheets of 12x12 patterned scrapbook paper that i cut pieces of to use as well. i darkened the edges of each square (and the cardboard sections) with a plain black ink pad. the pattern suggested doing this with the cardboard, but i thought it looked awesome on the little squares and gave it a more finished feel.

i used their print-out of the haunted house and drew my own monsters for the windows. to connect the cardboard pieces i just poked holes in them with my scissors and used pipe cleaners. i think the pattern has you use ribbon and eyelets. i stink at those eyelets because i don't have the right equipment for them. this was much easier, much faster, and i think it looks just fine.

the only thing i had to buy was velcro. the pattern says to use 1/2" pieces of the strip velcro, but i got the little round ones. there were 20 in a package and i think it ended up being about $4.50 for two packages at wal-mart.

after you pull off a panel for each day, they are stored in an envelope on the fourth section. the pattern called for an office supply envelope for this part. i didn't have one and didn't want to buy one so i made one, really easy.