Happy Friday! Today there will not be a click it (I might post one tomorrow if you all want?!?!) because I am participating in a fabulous blog hop hosted by Alice of Thoughts from Alice. She challenged 30 bloggers to find something at a thrift shop or the like for less than $25 and restyle or repurpose it into your holiday decor. I can’t wait to go through all of the links and see what everyone created! (Links at the bottom of this post). But here’s a little peek at all of the projects!
Do you see what I mean? Crazy talent out there!
I knew that I wanted to create a new advent calendar…. something more rustic and neutral to fit the look I am going for this year. I had no idea how I would make it or what I would use, but I knew that was one thing I needed. I came up with this guy….
So let me tell you how this deer mount advent calendar came into being! Many of you know I own a vintage barn sale, Sweet Clover. Two weeks ago I was at work getting ready to open during one of our sale weekends. As I approached one area, I saw that one of our vendors, Distressed Vintage Furniture Co., had hung some vintage deer mounts… (please note, I had already grabbed mine when I snapped this photo, so my exact shape mount is not there).
The price on the mount was $18- perfect! Under the $25 limit on the one piece to start our project, and I was now inspired! When I turned around I saw this vendor also had an amazing brass deer hook. I thought it would be great to place on the mount to still have the “deer mount” sort of look to it, rather than something like a crest or shield. ANd yes, I realize that technically Sweet Clover is not a thrift shop, per se, but it was a steal of a deal at a vintage (ie, used) shop. And if you must know I had some vintage ornaments the vendor wanted, so we actually just traded the mount for one box of pink vintage ornaments- what a deal!
I took the mount home, sanded it down, primed it and painted it with General Finishes Snow White paint. I planned to gild the edge, so I let the paint run over the sides and didn’t worry about it. However, when I went to remove some of the paint before gilding, I found I loved the look, and opted to distress the rim around it.
Once it was painted and distressed, I added my deer to the top of it with a screw. After he was placed, I used some serious math skills to lay out a grid for 24 brass cup hooks. Honestly, I laid it out several times until I found the configuration I liked best, and I can’t even tell you how I got them all evenly spaces, because I do not have the brain of an engineer…. but I worked it out. And I penciled where to drill….
My cup hooks were 5/16″ so I chose to use a drill bit that was a little smaller, selecting the 5/64″ from my black oxide drill bit set. I drilled almost all the way through where each pencil mark was.
I then screwed each cup hook into each hole, 24 in all!
To fill up the calendar, I used chalkboard tags from the craft store and numbered each 1-24.
I used a circle punch and brown textured craft paper to punch circles to place underneath the tags on the calendar, and each circle has a festive activity to help us get into the Christmas spirit. We do this each year instead of little prizes. This year, the kids helped me come up with activities, which are really simple like making cookies for neighbors, singing carols, watching a family Christmas movie.
Here is what it looks like all put together for you! It will actually hang in my kitchen, but I hung it in the dining room temporarily to take photos since I am one of the bloggers who doesn’t yet have Christmas decor out. GASP!
Here you can see the tags a little more closely.
And behind each one hides a little brown circle with the day’s activity…
Once the activity is done and the day is accounted for, the brown circle will be placed with its textured side out over the date.
And how awesome is this deer? He was the perfect touch!
I am really looking forward to starting our countdown, although I am not yet ready for Christmas!
Now be sure to visit all of these other amazing blogs to see what sort of magic they came up with!
