Recently, I was lucky enough to attend The Create, Make, Celebrate Retreat, along with eleven other super-talented artists and bloggers, as the guests of my dear friend, Laura Kelly, artist and creator of Laura Kelly Designs, Inc. She’s featured in a ten page spread in the current issue of Where Women Create, (check her out!); we gathered to celebrate her, learn new skills, and enjoy some of her favorite things.
As luck would have it, one of her favorite places is World Market, (it’s a favorite place of mine, too!). Southlands Shopping Center in Colorado invited us to visit Laura’s local store.
Shopping?? Twist my arm.
It was almost impossible to decide, that store is full of too many things that speak right into my listening, but I settled on an adorable garland made from clothespins and burlap with wood numbers. Some wood snowflake ornaments and red wood beaded garland were my other picks. I didn’t know yet what I’d make, but an idea was brewing.
Today, I finally put it all together, and created this fun advent calendar for my kiddos. Here are the step by step instructions. This took about 20 minutes TOTAL TIME. You can do this.
Supplies:
- 1 wood board or canvas that is about 24″ by 14″ You can go larger, just don’t go smaller.
- Paint, any color you wish, nothing too dark. I used a light aqua that I mixed up myself. You’ll also need a paintbrush, I used a cheap one.
- Krylon Glitter Blast in Silver or Gold
- World Market Wood and Burlap Heart Advent Calendar Garland
- World Market Laser Cut Wood Snowflake Boxed Ornament 12 Pack
- World Market Retro Wooden Cranberry Bead Garland
- Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
- Scissors
Steps:
Paint your wood board or canvas using the paint color you chose. I like a rustic, shabby kind of look, so for me, this step goes pretty fast.
You can see it’s a little uneven. That’s not laziness. That’s charm, darlings.
Next, I sprayed this with a few blasts of Krylon GlitterBlast (aptly named!) in silver.
OOOOOooo GLITTER. You can see this just caused the whole project to level up! Try not to go crazy glittering everything you own. Okay, do.
Next step, I cut the numbered garland into four lengths, with six numbers on each length. I then used this very handy glue, Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue, to adhere the back of the clothespins to my board.
As you can see, I also used it to make a line of glue all around the perimeter of the board, and here’s where the red wood beads were attached. When the beads go down, make sure they cover any loose strings from the number garland so the ends aren’t flying around.
Sidenote: this glue is AMAZING. I’m known as a hot glue devotee, just for the quickness of it, but since using this I’m a convert to Aleene’s Fast Grab now.
Get some, see for yourself, you can thank me later.
Next, the snowflakes, I just stuck them at random spots around the board to embellish it, they add some whimsical charm and break up some of the color.
And there you have it. No really, you’re done! Attach whatever you like to the clothespins, I’ll be adding little white paper baggies with notes, candies, and other tiny novelties in them.
Happy Christmas Count-downing!
Links:
www.worldmarket.com
www.ilovetocreate.com
www.krylon.com
www.wherewomencreate.com
www.laurakellydesigns.com