Advent Callender ATC's

This has to be the biggest and most complicated project I have ever worked on but I am so glad that I participated in this swap.

The swap is an Advent Calender made out of ATC's. To have a bit of continuity to the look we decided to use a certain set of Basic Black Papers. Alas I am the only one so far to use the more retro side of the two sided papers...it never even occurred to me to use the solid sides LOL.

The idea for my design came about after a search for cookie recipes. I ran across the 25 Days of Christmas Cookies web site and said to myself...well I can't put rejuvenating candy in each ATC but I could put a recipe.








I went back and forth on how to incorporate the recipe...do I shape the ATC's more like cookies? Do I search for cookie stamps do I print out the pictures of the cookies and attach them...well non of those things ended up happening obviously.

In 2007 Paula's Kit Club for her Christmas kit did a Merry Kitschmas Kit which had all sorts of food themed items in it, she followed that kit up with the In the Kitschen Kit which included the woman stamp that I used. So slowly very slowly everything started to come together.






I decided to print out the recipes and put them inside the ATC but then I didn't have enough to fill the front of the ATC. A few months ago I participated in a charm swap that a friend of mine told me the charms I made would make fabulous magnets so that is what I decided to do. Make magnets that attached to the front filling up the space that can be moved to hold open the recipe on your fridge while you make it.

The magnets took me a lot longer to make than I imagined. First I had to paint them all gold with a Krylon Gold ink pen. Next I punched out collage images from Alpha Stamps glued them down and then added Diamond Glaze to make them shinny and very very permanent. Alpha Stamps also carries this fabulous mini tensile, in red and gold, that I fell in love with and glued to each bottle cap. To finish the magnets off I added the red or green dangling bead. They look fabulous on their own but I think they really add to the overall ATC's.

Inside instead of just printing out the cookie recipes I had to go and print them on transparency so I could add some color to the inside. I used another stamp that I received in a Paula's Kit Club stamping it in either red and green and brushing the edges with gold.

I was originally going to affix the transparency with gold brads but then the ATC's would not close flush and since the magnet sticks out a lot I didn't want any more depth.

Well, that's that...the project that took me forever but I am very glad I finished it. As a bit of torture to those taking part here is the list of recipes that you may get depending on which ATC's you get.

Day 1 Chocolate Roll Out Cookies
Day 2 Meringue Stars
Day 3 Trios
Day 4 Pistachio & Cherry Mexican Wedding Cookies
Day 5 Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies
Day 6 Five-Spice Gingersnaps
Day 7 Italian Almond Cookies
Day 8 Mini Black-and-White Cookies
Day 9 Raspberry Chocolate French Macaroons
Day 10 Hazelnut Shortbread Sticks
Day 11 Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Day 12 Chock-Full Blondie Squares
Day 13 Fig Swirls
Day 14 Grasshopper Squares
Day 15 Chocolate Peanut Toffee
Day 16 Knot Cookies
Day 17 Chocolate chip and Peppermint Crunch Cookies
Day 18 Seven Layer cookies
Day 19 Triple-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Day 20 Rugalach
Day 21 Coconut-Orange Snowballs
Day 22 Holiday Sugar Cookies
Day 23 Apricot-Orange Shortbread Bars
Day 24 Molasses Crinkles
Day 25 Pecan Sables