SEASON"S GREETINGS, my 2 free projects, Ribbon Bows & Bow Makers

Hi Everyone, The best of this wonderful season to everyone! I wrote these projects for the AIM Advent Calendar which is so fabulous this year, so I thought I would make them available here! Please click on the pages to view them larger for reading. You can have a look at all of the contributions of the 2014 Advent Calendar through the doors here. http://www.artisansinminiature.com/photo_25.html

I would like to thank Sally Watson who is the editor, the editorial team and each of the contributors for all of their hard work and generosity in making the AIM Advent Calendar possible. Special thanks to Bea Broadwood for starting the AIM magazine years ago. If you haven't looked at the archives you are in for a surprise and it is all free.

Love & Hugs, Jean

New Advent Calendar Kit and a biref History of the Advent Calendar

New For Christmas:an Advent Calendar Kit Since this is my favorite time of year, I really enjoyed designing this Advent Calendar.  I looked up the history of Advent Calendars in Wikimedia and  I have written a brief synopsis because I found it really interesting. To find out more please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_calendar. The first known Advent calendar was handmade in 1851. According to the Lower Austrian Landesmuseum, the first printed Advent calendar was produced in Germany by a protestant bookshop. Other authorities say that a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang, was responsible for the first printed calendar in 1908. Lang was a printer who made 24 little coloured pictured that were affixed to a piece of cardboard. Several years later he introduced a calendar with 24 little doors. He had about 30 designs until 1930 when he went out of business. Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent calendars with Bible verses instead of pictures behind the doors. After World War 11 Richard Sellmer of Stuttgart started making the Advent calendars again and this is why they are so popular today. His company maintains a stock of over 1 million calendars worldwide. His company today is called Richard Sellmer Verlag. Since that time many families have enjoyed putting out an Advent Calendar on Dec. 1 to enjoy counting down the days until Christmas with an image related to Christmas, candy, chocolate, or other gifts. Wikimedia mentions that handmade Advent calendar have become popular projects with artisans and we see them including fabric, felt, chipboard and small boxes. The concept of the Advent Calendar has recently broadened to include Countdown Calendars, which I also thought would be great for a miniature scene, including birthdays, Easter, Halloween, graduation, last day of school, retirement and more. It was a real challenge to come up with the calendar design and 24 tiny gifts. Since I have recently finished a Gingerbread House Kit, I thought that gingerbread would be a good choice for some of the gifts. I made various shapes in a paint program and enjoyed decorating the designs. I designed the other stuffed style gifts with my digital drawings. Cutting out one of the designs each day might be a nice way to start the calendar. The calendar includes gifts: 2 crowns, a gingerbread house, star, wreath, 2 teddies and 1 chocolate look teddy, dog, cat, Santa, snowflake, 2 owls, an elf, 2 stockings, doll, snow man, butterfly, 2 candy canes, a heart and a mitten. The calendar part has fabric strips with numbers to glue onto the fabric backing and trim. I hope you will enjoy this holiday season as much as I do.