Welcome back to my second post for 30 Days of Holiday Project Ideas with Xyron. Today, I wanted to share with you our family's Advent Calender for this holiday season.
Instead of 24 days of candy or activities, we are doing 24 days of holiday books! Between the books we already own, checking out books from the library, and stocking up on some new affordable books from Scholastic Books, it's been a great month of reading thus far!
Using the new holiday papers from American Crafts, Crate Paper and Imaginesce, I made some super simple and easy tags to decorate the tissue paper wrapped books. Here's how!
1. Die Cut Tag Shapes. I have recently (within the past year or so) started collecting steel dies to use in my manual die cutting machine (i.e. Xyron Creatopia with Shapez Component or Sizzix Big Shot). Don't get me wrong. I love my Silhouette Cameo (electronic die cutting machine) but there is something nice about not having to be at my computer and being able to cut other materials like felt or foam that keeps me reaching for my steel dies.
Here are the dies that I used for this project - from Spellbinders and Xyron, Sizzix, Lil' Inker Designs, My Favorite Things and Avery Elle.
I then die cut them out from a selection of super cute holiday papers from Studio Calico, American Crafts, Crate Paper and Imaginesce.
2. For Layered Tags, Distress Edges with Ink. For some tags that have layered pieces, I like to use Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo to distress the edges. It makes the top layer stand out more.
3. Apply Adhesive to Tag Pieces and Adhere to Tag Bases. For the pieces that will be layered on the top of the tag bases, I run them through the Xyron 5" Creative Station with Permanent Adhesive. This ensures that there is edge to edge adhesive on the shapes and it makes the process go SO RIDICULOUSLY FAST!!
Then simply assemble the tags together.
4. Punch Holes in Tags. Using a We R Memory Keepers Crop a Dile, I punched little holes in the top of my tags.
5. Apply Number Stickers to Tags. Since it's an advent calendar, you need numbers! I used a variety of American Crafts Thickers to put the numbers of the different tags.
6. Choose your Books and Wrap Them Up! Finally, choose a selection of books and wrap them up. I personally like to use tissue paper since I have so much of it after buying some from Costco like 20 years ago. :) Using a white or kraft base also really helps the tag to be the main embellishment on the wrapped books.
7. Add the Tags with Twine. Finally, add the tags to your wrapped books with some pretty twine. I used some Lawn Trimmings from Lawn Fawn. Then display them all out for the kids to enjoy!
Since we don't have a mantle, I displayed ours on the piano along with some other homemade holiday decorations.
I hope that inspired you to try something new this holiday season (or for any holiday)! And just so you know, I don't put all the books out at once. I get a good number of them from the library and mix them in with books we own. That way, I don't have to have 24 Christmas themed books! We also always have The Night Before Christmas reserved for Christmas Eve.
Check out these other advent calendar ideas from my blog. Here is a banner advent calendar and a muffin tin advent calendar.
And please make sure to visit the Xyron Facebook Page all month for more awesome holiday inspiration. As always, thanks for stopping by!
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