Magnolia Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hi everyone and I'm very happy to be hosting window sixteen of the Magnolia Advent Calendar blog hop today. I hope you've been enjoying it so far and all the beautiful creations of my design team friends. Magnolia are very generously giving away a prize every day in December and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning  is leave a comment on this post and I'll randomly pick a winner in 24 hours. Once the winner has provided their details I'll send them to Magnolia so that they can send out the prize. 

I decided to make an advent calendar for the blog hop as it's tradition to have one in our house every year. My usual calendar is shown in the photo's below and was made when my boys were small. I cross stitched it, sewed all the aida fabric together and mounted it on board and it usually hangs on a wall. 

The new calendar was a KaiserKraft chipboard flat pack that I put together, painted with gesso and then covered all the little boxes with Magnolia papers and there's a small amount of SEI paper too. The numbers were painted with Ranger Picket Fence crackle paint and then attached to the boxes. For my centre panel I used a piece of 8 x 8 inch chipboard (it's a big calendar) also painted with gesso and then I sponged on my background scene. I did the mountains and sky by cutting a curvy shape into a sheet of printer paper and using both sides as masks for the sponging.  The trees were also sponged on using distress inks and then I added lots of glitter, cosmic shimmer glitter jewels and white rub 'n' buff.

Tilda in Christmas coat is painted with distress inks and cut out and the skaters were stamped onto shrink plastic, painted with distress inks and then shrunk down so that I could have them in the distance. I stamped Magnolia Christmas text stamps on a Magnolia Doo Hickey tag that I cut from white Bazzil card then added some rusty tin holly leaves, twine, little bells, a Marianne swirl die cut and some ribbon that I died with mica powder and distress ink and then wrinkled. To decorate the little ledge in front of the panel I glued on some sparkly twigs, mini tinsel and snowballs to finish off the scene.

Camilla added a lovely poem on her hosting day for the blog hop and I'd like to leave you with my favourite winter poem by Robert Frost which came to mind when I was making the panel. 

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening : Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Thank you for reading to the end, it was a long post :), enjoy the rest of the blog hop and leave your comment  for the chance of a lovely prize from Magnolia.