I finally got the Christmas Countdown Kit done that I purchased last year! My plan was to make one for each of my 6 grandsons, but since I never got even one done, I didn’t purchase the other 5 kits last year. I was a bit disappointed with myself, but I was given a second chance when Stampin’ Up! carried the Christmas Countdown Kits over this year, YAY!

The decoration pieces that came with the kit were a bit too elegant for my rowdy crowd. I think that was part of the reason why I didn’t get the kit done last year. Then I saw another demonstrator use the scenery paper from the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper pack and I was excited to start.

I cut the paper into 2″ squares, carefully keeping them in order so that I didn’t have to put the “puzzle” back together. I used a 1″ circle punch to cut out the finger hole slots.

I used the Jolly Season Santa and reindeer die to put Santa flying across the top of the calendar. Some of the numbers were ones that I had from my scrapbooking stash. I have no idea how old they are or where they came from, but they were a shinny copper color and I liked them, so on they went. I used liquid glue to adhere everything.

I used the Coming Home stamp set and the Home Together Dies to add some popped up trees. I also found the retired Santa’s Workshop Enamel Shapes with some tree stickers that I thought went well with the designs (lower right corner day 8).

The Trimming the Town DSP wreaths cut with the matching Home Together Dies made a pretty accent on the church. One of the stars from the All the Trimmings Embellishments added another fun element to a tree.

Some little rhinestones added some sparkle to the bare trees. I didn’t have enough of the foraged numbers so I die cut the rest using the retired Little Numbers Dies and Copper Foil.

I just had to add a die cut car to the scene somewhere and it fit in on date 23. It’s colored with Stampin’ Blends and popped up with a dimensional.

I scattered some of the Adhesive Backed Snowflakes randomly across several of the boxes.

Product List – Some of the items are retired and no longer available. The kit comes with enough supplies to create the entire Advent Calendar without adding anything extra.

Christmas Countdown Project Kit [150703] $30.00	Trimming The Town Designer Series Paper [153491] $11.50
Home Together Dies [153515] $34.00	Coming Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [153500] $18.00
Jolly Season Dies (En) [150648] $33.00	Little Numbers Thinlits Dies [138278] $20.00
Noble Peacock Rhinestones [149494] $5.50	Santa’s Workshop Enamel Shapes [147811] $7.00
1″ (2.5 Cm) Circle Punch [119868] $13.00	All The Trimmings Embellishments [153540] $8.00
Adhesive-Backed Snowflakes [153545] $6.00	Copper Foil Sheets [142020] $5.00