advent boxes: a project

I have been wanting to do something fun advent-wise for our family for awhile now. First I made advent ornaments, but it wasn't "big" enough - I wanted something I could put on the wall. Something people would see when they first walked in the house.  And then I saw Ali Edwards' advent boxes and fell in love.

I went to my local craft store to find paper mache boxes and they had a grand total of three there. No good.  So I found a website called Woodcrafter.com that has a ton of different sized paper mache boxes at great prices.  I placed my order and they arrived shortly after in great shape.

I loved the colors that she used for her boxes, so I kept those the same.  Making Memories scrapbook paint in Cranberry, Avocado and Paper Bag.  One thing I knew I wanted to do is to keep them all together somehow - I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.  So I bought a 20" x 20" canvas and painted the edges in that same beautiful Cranberry paint.  Then I lined the back with thick cork sheets (I actually ended up doing two layers thick) and secured it with duct tape (that suckers not going anywhere!).

Then I arranged my boxes how I wanted them, and tacked them in place with thumbtacks.  I also used a little bit of tacky glue on the backs for extra insurance.  And here is how it turned out,

(Our last name starts with "A" so this is one of the many "A"s around our house).

Another huge thank you to Ali Edwards for such a fun holiday project idea.