Christmas Advent Calendar Transformed into Halloween Countdown (complete with additional drawers!)
A little on how I did the tranformation and pics below the cut
I picked up this advent calendar in the xmas sale for around £7 from The Range. I could see the potential for transforming the scene into a spooktacular one. This project will be a breeze, I thought, and I’ve got like 10 months!
LET’s GO!
MATERIALS
Advent calender - wood Ply wood Decoupage paper (Hobbycraft) Popsicle sticks Fimo Acrylic Paint Enamel paint Gold Pen Wire Black Glitter Lichen Car filler (P38) Skull beads Super glue Hot glue gun Mod podge Sand paper
STEP 1 - ADDING EXTRA DRAWERS
(Unfortunately I don’t have photos of this stage because my phone needed a reset and I lost them)
Easily the biggest pain in the arse but what’s the point of having a halloween countdown calendar that has 25 days? Sure, you could start 25 days away from Halloween but are you a mathematician? Because I’m sure not. MORE DRAWERS. I used my calculator and worked out I needed 7 more drawers.
First I measured a back piece, two side pieces and a front piece. You can see the original has little feet on the base. I cut my new pieces to slot into those. I cut the 7 drawer holes out of the front piece, then stuck all the pieces to the base of the calendar with super duper strong glue, then filled the inside joints with a hot glue gun for extra strength.
Once the glue was dry I filled in any little gaps with P38 which is a really useful stuff! It’s used for filling car scratches and dents. You mix it with a little activator and apply it to gaps and holes. It dries pretty quick, then you can sand it smooth.
Making the drawers was another huge pain. A lot of measuring and cutting and gluing, as you can imagine. I used the current drawers as templates.
STEP 2 - PAINTING
Before painting I scratched and picked off the snow that was on the top scene and removed the fir trees as they were too Christmassy. I primed the entire thing with grey primer (I recommend using WHITE primer to save yourself some hassle later)
Then I painted the front and sides in dark brown and started painting the insides of the drawers- some black and some red. This took a sentence to write but I assure you it took a fucking long time.
STEP 3 - THE FRONTS OF THE FUCKING DRAWERS
Now, when I bought this calender, I thought I’d just ‘paint it’ and then spend a nice time making the little scene on top. What really happened is I spent 88% of the time woodworking and trying to get the front of the drawers to look nice, and 12% of the time making a nice fun scene on top.
I removed the drawer knobs. I painted some of the drawers and decoupage the others. Learn from my mistakes.
* If you have spray paint skills, use those. Painting with a brush is a pain and leaves brushmarks.
* Don’t use too much glue on the decoupage paper as it’ll bleed through
* Don’t use grey primer because you’ll need to paint more layers to cover it
After this ordeal was over, I used a gold pen in write the numbers on and glued black skulls beads (ebay) with superglue for the drawer knobs.
STEP 4 - I GOT THE THE FUCKING FUN BIT AT LAST
Making the scene on top was fun. I painted the ‘floor’ a dark green and the buildings different colours.
For the tree I used garden wire, twisted it into an armature and covered it in paper mache. Once that was dry I painted it black and when that was dry I painted it with mod podge and dipped it in black glitter.
For the house fire I sculpted the flames out of Fimo and painted them fire colours. Then I glued them in the windows with a hot glue gun.
I made little gravestones out of the ends of popsicle sticks and a couple of cross charms I already had.
I painted them and drew on them with a teeny pen, then hot glued those mothers to the top. I also glue the tree in place, then finally, I put some green lichen on the top to cover the glue and my shoddy paintwork.
FINAL STEP - FILLING THE DRAWERS WITH PRECIOUS HALLOWEEN BOOTY
Well obviously this was the easiest step. I filled the drawers with spooky chocolates, stickers, little spooky treats, spookalicious jewelery and curses and all that kind of shit.
There are lots of things I would have done differently but I’m pleased with the final piece. If you have a go at making one, let me know, I’d love to see it.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, DIY WITCHES
