Our Advent Calendar 2011: It Shimmers and Shines

Ok, there are a lot of pictures in this post, I know. However, I also have to say that I really love this year's Advent calendar, like A LOT. I had the hardest time taking pictures of it because it's in a dark corner of our living room (on our ugly 1960's green marble fireplace) and it shimmers and shines only when my ribbon votives are lit. Throw in the typical German weather for this time of year -overcast- and it's a recipe for photography disaster. So basically there are pictures because I love this year's calendar AND because I'm amazed I was able to get what I could with my little point-and-shoot!

I made this calendar for my husband (he fills a red felt calendar for me) and he was ecstatic; he loves it! He loves wildlife, so when I saw the forest animal free Advent printables from Raumdinge (I think she got the graphics from The Graphics Fairy), I knew I had to use this for him.

You may notice some similarities to our godson's calendar. The white bags were just too easy and since I had so many left over, it made sense to use them up. They're just little white sandwich bags; I think I paid 75 cents for 75 bags. The little chalkboard clips were found at our local drugstore (go figure) and I used my tailor's chalk to write the numbers. The fabric strips were cut and recycled from his Advent calendar last year. The shimmery paper is my favorite part though; I used a paper punch to cut these from some glitter wrapping paper I found last week. I bought the paper here thinking it was printed foil, but no, it was real glitter! Needless to say the floor in my office shimmers now...good thing I have a vacuum cleaner!

The funny thing is that I didn't plan on adding the glitter paper, or using the ribbon votives, but once I started laying things out, I realized I needed shimmer and shine -and I had the wrapping paper! and then as I set it up in the living room I realized it was really dark -but the little votives would add light and nicely reflect off the glitter.

The other trick I had to employ was creating elevation. We didn't have a place to string these up (that would be so cute!) and since laying them flat on the mantle would look lame, I used plain brown post paper to wrap some empty cardboard tissue and food containers.

Basically, I had a lot of fun putting this together and both of us are really pleased with how it turned out. It makes for quite a cozy little corner!

Anybody else make an Advent calendar this year? I think they're so fun! If you've posted pictures online, share the link in the comments so we can all enjoy!