Christmas Advent LOVE

Hello :)

Do you have an advent calendar? I've never done one but this year, my friends at my favorite magazine Mollie Makes challenged me to create one using envelopes. The full tutorial was featured in their magazine i believe issue 46. 

So here is my first one!  Is this bright enough? ;) jk It was a bit of an intimidating project to begin since I designed 13 out of the 25 papers for the envelopes. It was really hard finding christmas paper in the summer! lol! 

I gathered my supplies at the start of the project and when I went to shoot the final wall with the advent envelopes i saw this sitting on my desk. Isn't it pretty? I found the tray at a thrift store for $1 :) Gosh I love a good find.

My favorite envelope is #14: Its a piece of paper my little r drew on with a marker  last year. I've kept it up on my inspiration wall ever since and when I went looking around for papers I looked up and thought +perfect+. 

Remember this:

I know its a bit abstract but my intention was including something he made in the advent calendar. And I know he's only 3 but he's not much into scrapbooking ;) lol! So this is as close to scrapbooking as it gets for him and I'm happy XO

My little guy turned 3 on the 10th of December and I visually wanted to give him a marker for his birthday so i put our first picture together on envelope #10. I had just given birth and even though we were both so tired + this photo is super blurry i just love it so. And we haven't slept in since that day lol!!!  So much to be thankful for, thats my focus for this advent. Not focusing on presents. Not focusing on the cost of things. Spending meaningful time together. Making new traditions, like going out for a drive around our new neighborhood to see lights + mexican hot chocolate with huge marshmallows + fresh yummy cookies. Oh so good! We're planning on giving back this season in our neighborhood, family & friends XO even after Christmas is over.  I hope your days are bright & merry. Any fun traditions you'd like to share? Let me know, we are on the hunt for some fun :)

 Happy friday and happy crafting!

xo

-d