Lori Whitlock's Countdown to Christmas Creative Team Blog Hop

Welcome to the blog hop!!  I am so excited to share my project with you today.  I had so much fun making this Christmas Countdown decoration for my kids and the best part, it was so easy to make.

The one thing about Lori's 3D projects that always amazes me is how easy they are to put together.  Every piece fits into another easily and in the least amount of steps possible.  This 12 Days of Christmas Advent box is constructed out of 12 drawers that fit in 12 sleeves which you glue together in 3 columns and 4 rows.  Then there is a back piece that has supports to help fit the assembled boxes in.  

In addition to all of the base pieces, there are decorative pieces that you cut out from different colors or patterned paper.  I covered my drawers with some pretty plaid patterned paper from the Echo Park's This N That Christmas Collection by Lori Whitlock.  Then I cut the outside pieces from as wood styled looking paper from the same collection pack.  The numbers are also included with the 10, 11, and 12 being welded together so they are very easy to adhere on the drawers.

After I constructed the box, I decided I wanted to decorate the top.  I used the simple tree file in the Christmas Icons Set 2 for the base.  I enlarged it so that the bottom length of the tree was about 1/2 inch smaller than the box length.  I knew that the tree was going to need some support, so I cut a tall rectangular box, the 3 pencil box, out of kraft paper.  I also cut a long piece of kraft paper with my trimmer and scored it in half.  I attached the top half of this paper to the tree and the bottom half to the top of the box.  Then I adhered the pencil box to the back of the tree.  It made everything very sturdy.  

Here are some closeup shots of the decorations that are attached to the front of the tree.  All of them are cut from 2 of Lori's files.  Christmas Icons Set and Christmas Icons Set 2.  They were so much fun to cut.  I love how perfect their simple design work with the This N That patterned paper.  I really don't think I could pick a favorite ornament on my tree, they are all so sweet, and the best part is that there are even more cute images from those files that I didn't get to use yet.  I've got my eye on the cutest little penguin for a card that I have in my head.  :)

When adhereing the ornaments on the tree, I used foam adhesive to give my project dimension.

This picture shows what the box looks like from the side with a drawer open.  Yes, there is already candy inside. :)  The boxes are a very good size and could fit quite a few Hershey Kisses or maybe even my favorite, Russell Stover's marshmallow Santas!

So, now that you are all pumped up and ready to make your own Christmas Countdown Advent box, let me tell you a couple of things that you might find very exciting.  Just for stopping by, you are going to get a discount coupon code for 30% on orders over $15.  That is a great deal, escpecially since the prices for the files that I used are so good already.  You will find the code  HOLIDAY30 in the graphic below.  Use it for any files in Lori's store!

Also, just for stopping by, Lori is giving you 3 free cutting files.  They are so adorable.  You could actually use them as ornaments on your tree if you wanted to. To get your free files, just go to Lori Whitlock's blog here and download the files.  You will get SVG and Studio files.  Make sure to stop by right away, because they are only available until 11/24.

And last, and the best, in my most humble opinion, is your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Lori Whitlock's store.  All you have to do is leave a comment here on my blog for a chance to win!!!

Yes, you read it right.  I will be giving away one $10 gift card to Lori's shop and all you have to do is leave a little comment right here on my blog.  Oh, I should also mention that all of Lori's creative team members are also giving away a $10 gift card so if you hop along all of the links below you will increase your chances of winning!

I really want to thank you for stopping by.  I know that your time is valuable and I appreciate you spending it with me and reading my blog.  I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving week and I hope you have fun eating lots of good food and being together with family and friends.

Here is the order of the blog hop in case you get lost along the way.

Natalie Graham 
Corri Garza 
Joy Dickson 
Lisa Bell 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Amanda Jones 
Christine Ousley  (you are here)
Lisa Barrie 

Lori Whitlock blog

Lori Whitlock Supplies used:

• 12 Days of Christmas Advent
• Christmas Icons Set  
• Christmas Icons Set 2
• Christmas Nativity Titles
• 3 Pencil Box

         
Other Supplies used:

• Echo Park Christmas This N That collection pack
• Paper Studio Kraft and black cardstock paper
• Stampin Up! foam adhesive
• Scor Tape
• Hershey's Kisses  (Yum!)

Related articles

• Lori Whitlock's Awesome Autumn Blog Hop
• Spooky Halloween Wall Hanging using Lori Whitlock Designs
• I Am Pleased to Announce....
• Getting My Planner Ready for 2013
• Fun and Unique Gifts for the Holidays
• SRM Stickers Border Sticker Spotlight

Comments

[Mendi Yoshikawa]

This turned out darling. Your decorated tree on top takes this advent calendar to a whole other level. ;) All Lori's adorable Christmas icon shapes look so cute as ornaments for the tree! The snowflakes cut from the text print is such a fun look too! :)

[Danielle]

Oh this is so cool! Love the box with drawes in the wood pattern paper and that tree on top is just perfect!!

[Roelien van den Berg]

What a gorgeous project! This is really stunning - love all the files you used! ;-)

[Tine]

Amazing construction & certainly an heirloom piece.

[Sandy]

Great project!

[Sharmon S.]

I love the tree and all of the cute little ornaments on it! Thanks for sharing!

[Ashley C]

Your tree is so great.

[Andrea S.]

Amazing!

[Barb Glasier]

great idea-love this project

[Sara Westhead]

This is absolutely awesome!

[Rhadonda]

What a great Christmas activity! Thanks for sharing.

[Beth]

Darling advent calendar! I love it!

[Sue Alg]

I like your Advent Calendar. I also like the fact that the boxes appears to be a bit bigger to fit many wonderful surprises.

[Judy R]

That is just fabulous!! Hard to believe that it's made of paper!! Thanks for including the product thumbnails...makes it so easy to "shop."

[Zemanta]

Hey Christine!

We had some issues while updating the newly released update for our Zemanta plugin on TypePad, which caused our Related Articles to appear a bit awkward (it stacked them up vertically instead of horizontally) but thankfully we fixed it by now, so they should appear normally now (horizontally, that is). Here's more about the new feature: http://zemanta.typepad.com/

I would like to kindly suggest you to clean your browsing data (cache), restart your browser and try again then.

Are they showing up correctly now; can you confirm this? Let us know, we're really eager to get to the bottom of this.

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Have a nice day!

Best,
Silvo

[Lisa Bell]

That is stunning Christine! Great job.

[Helle Müller]

A really cute and creative project :-)

[Kristine]

LOVE the wood paper on this project. Really fun project!!!

[Lori]

Sweet idea!

[michelle monroe]

Your countdown tree is so adorable! What a wonderful project idea, thank you!

[Bobbi]

That tree is adorable!

[Anita A]

Stunning! I love the idea!

[Dawna Bond]

Great design, LOVE it!

[jackie 4124]

I absolutely love this idea!

[Kerren]

This tree is so gorgeous - love the colours!

[Melanie F]

I love that you put a tree on the top of the boxes and all of the elements from Lori's collections are fabulous!

[Hollie Walsh]

Beautiful advent calendar

[Leslie Younie]

Thanks for showing the back side and how you stabilized it! Love your ideas! Happy Thanksgiving!

[Natalie Graham]

Love it! What a great idea!

[Jennifer]

So much fun!

[Trisha]

Fabulous. Amazing how the drawers all go together and love the sweet tree on top.

[krafting kelly]

I've had this box set on my wishlist for a while. Love what you did with it! The decorated tree is adorable.

[LisaM]

What great idea. The tree and ornaments really make it fun. Thanks

[Heather Beasley]

So perfect and adorable! You made it sound easy - but it sure took a lot of time. Thanks for sharing and the give-away.

[Rhonda]

Cute!

[Sue D]

Fabulous project--I like how you decorated the tree.
slrdowney at hotmail dot com

[Ruth G]

Love the papers you chose for your boxes and absolutely love the tree and all the fun embellishments!!! Thanks for sharing and have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

[Suz]

cute tree!

[HeatherC]

This is amazing!! I love all of the drawers.

[Brandy S]

I agree. Lori's things are super easy to assemble! I love this box!

[Kay S.]

Thank you for sharing your project, especially all the pictures explaining it. This is so cute.

[Barbara Pitts]

I love Lori's 3D projects. They look amazing but are very simple to assemble - makes me look like a crafting genius!

[Margie Visnick]

This is so pretty!! Wow!

[Jessica]

This is a beautiful project and what a great idea to use the pencil box for reinforcement!

[Steffanie S]

How cute! Love all the little ornaments on your tree! Thanks for sharing!

[Marilyn Bronson]

Love your tree, what a great project. Thanks for sharing and for the opportunity to win.

[Tanya P.]

Wonderful Project! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family!

[Chris Zook]

Great project! Thanks for the inspiration!
latergatorchris at gmail dot com

[Melinda T]

Lovely! I'm sure your kids will have a lot of fun counting down!

[Sandra Merritt]

awesome idea I love it! :) patient_pink_panther(@)yahoo(.)com