Christmas Advent Board Tutorial

For the last few years I have wanted a Christmas advent container of some kind.  I have been in awe of the ones at Pottery Barn, but I am not willing to spend the $99-200 it costs to have a fancy one. I saw one the other day at Target but it was $30 and was cheaply made.

While browsing at that fabulous place, aka the Dollar Tree, I found circular Christmas themed boxes.  They had a large one and a small one for $1.  I knew these would be perfect for holding candy for an advent of some sort.  My wonderful husband went with me to Lowe's the other day and we bought a large MDF board for $21 and cut it down to about 10 board sizes.  (That's 10 different gifts for about $2 a piece, gotta love it!)  Now, putting the circular boxes together with the board, bingo, I have the makings of an advent board. 

On to the tutorial...

Supplies:

• 1 MDF board of your chosen size (mine was 16 by 25)
• Apple Barrel Paint in Glossy Red
• Foam brush
• 25 circular boxes (I had one leftover since they were bought in pairs)
• White vinyl cut via the Silhouette (title in Civitype FG font, numbers in akaDora font, both found free online)
• Silhouette Cutter
• Transfer Tape
• Scraper (I used my Pampered Chef little brown scraper)
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Tutorial:
1.  Paint the top and the sides of your MDF board with the red glossy paint.  I did two coats.  Allow to fully dry.

2.  Cut your vinyl.  Remove excess vinyl so that your letters and numbers are the only things still on the paper. (Sorry it is hard to see the vinyl on the white backing).

3.  Rub the transfer tape on the vinyl letters.  I used my Pampered chef brown scrapper (one used for cleaning stoneware). Then peel off the transfer paper (vinyl will be attached).  Place the transfer paper on your board, rub using the scrapper and put your letters on the board.

4.  Organize your boxes on the board.  I did a large box then a small box, alternately.  Dumb me only bought four types of boxes, which meant the boxes got repeated.  Next time I would by five types so that I don't repeat them as often.
5.  Once you have the boxes organized on the board, transfer the numbers onto each box using the transfer paper as you did before.

6.  Hot glue each box to your board and allow it to set before adding candy or trinkets in each box.  Here is my finished Christmas Advent Board:

I figured out that I made my board for about $20.  It isn't the cheapest project, but it is personalized and perfect for what I wanted.

I just realized I name dropped about five companies and I'm not getting reimbursed for any of that.  My brother would be very upset with me for all that free advertising!

If you made your own advent for Christmas or another holiday, please share it as I love advents of any kind!  Off to eat the goodies for Day 1 since the kids didn't get to!  Ha!