I’m sure you know by now how I admire Martha Stewart. Her November issue of Living had an Advent calendar chain and I convinced myself to make one for my girls. Of course, with me being frugal, I did not want to spend money on fancy boxes for each little gift. So I found a few box patterns online on a French site of Marie Claire and an industrial box company site. I don’t know much of French except cooking terms and your basic “oui.” But the patterns were self explanatory on the Marie Claire site (for me anyway).
I created most of the patterns on the boxes and put my Exacto knife to work. It was fun putting this all together. I was bummed that my printer’s yellow ink didn’t work. There’s supposed to be some vibrant green in the mix. I was running out of time since Dec. 1st was fast approaching so I stopped fiddling with the “clean ink heads” setting and just left it as is. I think I’m growing accustomed to the color. But I digress… Each box was tied with kitchen twine then tied to each other – which was a challenge in itself. All together, the chain stretched to about 6′ tall!
Today marks 24 days until Christmas. The box pattern is a bon bon box and I put a little bracelet inside.
It’s Advent so I’m feeling a bit generous – my gift to you… A PATTERN! (Ha! Yeah, I’m frugal alright!) You’ll find 2 formats on the PDF file. One is for letter-sized (8.5″x11″) paper and the other is for a half-scrapbook (6″x12″) paper. There are 2 boxes on each of the formats and you’ll be able to make a box that has a 2″x2″ base and is about 1.5″ in height. I suggest you print on the “wrong side” of patterned paper so that your score marks fold the right way.
Have fun making little boxes!