Countdown on the Avenue...

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I decided to be ambitious this month for Nichole Heady's Guest Star Stamper Challenge and make something that I hope can become something of an heirloom keepsake. I have always loved advent calendars and have wanted to create my own for quite some time. After many starts and stops (and a few little tears!) I finally finished and I was pleased with how it turned out.
We recently moved to Manhattan, and, though the skyscrapers are breathtaking, it's the older, lovely brownstones that speak to me. For my project, I was inspired by these beautiful buildings. First I chose my colors, which was a combination of black, red, green, and light blue. For my masonry, I printed a brick background using my computer and an inkjet printer.


Next, I stamped and embossed all the windows on heavy vellum, cutting each one out and then gluing on paper-pieced shutters and then adhering each to a piece of vanilla cardstock (some with pretty curtains!) for a lighted glow. As a wintry touch, I sprinkled a bit of Fun Flock on the rooftops and the sill of each window.


To add some holiday festive flavor, I made pine branch swags to decorate my embossed vellum lamps, with a few Stickle-berries thrown in.


For my doors, I stamped onto colored cardstock and carefully painted each doorknob with Shimmer Paint (the knobs are so tiny I had to use a needle!) For my sweet wreath, I again used a pine branch punch and trimmed them down, layering around a circle and adding more berries. A shimmery outlined ribbon punch spruced up my blue door, and I made a tiny door hang with the letters J-O-Y stamped on tiny pieces of cardstock with an itty-bitty nail for good measure.

Assembling the houses took quite some time, as I had to make up my own template. Each window/door opens into a little box inside the houses, and each frame had to be hand cut into the walls with a hobby blade. The countdown numbers were printed on the computer in an elegant script and hole-punched into circles.

(The teeny window on top of the green house is just large enough for a plump jelly bean!)

I used a cornice punch for my rooftop, layering in the same textured cardstock as used in the large masonry behind each door on the first floor.

I then added a "wrought-iron" fence to each house and then attached all three houses to a base. The finished advent calendar is approximately 9-1/2" tall x 13-1/4" wide.


Now, since December is already well underway, we'll enjoy this calendar without any treats inside it this year (the above chocolates were for display, and I'm pretty sure my husband has already eaten them!) - but we'll be filling it with yummy goodies in the next!
BEAN NOTES: Papertrey Ink Home Made and Simple Alphabet Stamps; Stampin' Up Basic Black Craft Ink; SU Riding Hood Red, Wild Wasabi, and Baja Breeze Classic Dye Ink; PTI Stamper's Select Vellum Cardstock; DVWV Dark Gray Textured Cardstock; SU Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, and Very Vanilla Cardstock; Martha Stewart Pine Branch, Cornice, Picket Fence, and Ribbon Bow Punches; 1/16" and 1/4" Hole Punches (generic); Hobby Blade; Computer and Inkjet Printer; Black Embossing Powder (generic); Foam Dimensional Squares (generic); Sakura Clear Star Gelly Roll Pen
HAPPY BEANS: Scor-Pal; SU Silver Shimmer Paint; Needle, Ranger Christmas Red Stickles, Fun Flock, SU 2-Way Glue