December SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the December Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. You should have come from Krista's blog, but don't worry if you started here. The hop is a circle so just keep going. If you get lost, you can always go to Melinda's blog for a complete list of participants.

For my project, I used a little old, a little new, and a little non-CTMH in addition to the Reindeer Crossing stamp set. I made a very special kind of advent calendar for my daughter's gender reveal party. In fact, as this hop goes live, I'm probably still there. The man who made their cake and I were the only two people who know that it's...

A girl!





I'm so excited. Here's the advent calendar I made.

Inside the pockets, five of the tags are decorated with two bucks and three does. Guests will all put their names in a bowl. As their names are drawn, they will chose which day they think she'll deliver by taking down the pocket and pulling out the tag. Most of them will be blank. We'll keep guessing dates and pulling out tags until the three girl tags are revealed. With any luck, the two decoy boy tags will be revealed before the third girl one is, adding to the suspense.

My son-in-law built the frame. I made the Kraft pockets, tags, and the bucks and does using Cricut Design Space. Here's the file if you'd like to replicate this project, and here's the Pinterest picture I used for inspiration. I didn't want my calendar to be quite so intricate, so on the pockets without the doiley, I gold embossed the small pine cones and fir tree branches from Reindeer Crossing.

The currently available product I used includes various CTMH Cricut cartridges, Kraft paper, White Daisy paper, Candy Apple paper, Evergreen paper, Versamark ink, Gold Detail Embossing powder, and the SOTM, Retired product includes the Block Numbers Thin Cuts (still available in Online Only) and the doileys (I used pre-made ones, but a thin cut is available in Online Only). Non-CTMH product is the gold cord and mini clothes pins used to attach the pockets to the frame. CTMH used to sell smaller sized frames with chicken wire centers which is where I got the idea.

You're next stop on the hop is Cat's blog. Again, be sure to keep hopping until you've seen all the great projects.

Before you go, CTMH is having a sale on Monday, December 2 beginning at 3pm MST. Items are up to 50% off in limited quantities. It only lasts for 24 hours, so shop early. And, as always, if you spend $50, the Stamp of the Month is only $5.

Until next time,
Becca
(aka Grandma!)