Christmas Crafts Part II

Please excuse the picture placement in the last post. I'm becoming more infuriated at blogger with each passing minute!

But I won't let it get me down, because I'm MOST excited about this Christmas Craft!! When Bower Power posted about this amazing Pottery Barn Advent Calendar I nearly fell out of my chair in awe! And with a tutorial on how to make one of my own?! I knew right away this was another craft I had to tackle, except this time I couldn't wait 6 months to finish it. NO.WAY. It had to be mine, and it had to be mine right now! I was over at my parents one afternoon showing them this MARVELOUS, 'whimsical with a touch of nature' Pottery Barn Advent Calendar, when my mom said, "well, we have those old bulletin boards you could use."

What?!

Katie bar the door! I nearly knocked my Mom to the floor as I ran into the hall bedroom to drag them out of their hiding place! With this as my inspiration, I was on my way to making one of my own.

That is, until Smith Snapshots sent me an email about this very project and said she wanted to make one too! Yess! I love a good crafting partner. She had the spray adhesive; I had an extra cork board. So between the two of us, we conquered this project together.

Again, I'm not going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to make one of your own (see Bower Powers post for a tutorial), but I will tell you that this "little project" took two very dedicated crafters almost 10 hours to finish (four hours one night; six hours another).

We did EVERYTHING ourselves.

We used a handsaw.

Then got smart and used a circular saw.

We used a mitre box.

We used wood screws.

We drilled pilot holes.

We used a staple gun.

We used spray adhesive.

We used a paper cutter.

We measured, measured, and measured again.

And when it was all said and done, we were so proud of ourselves!

I spent the next couple of days scrounging around for the perfect ornaments, and she did the same. (I handmade/had on hand several of my ornaments and found the rest at Michaels, Target, Wal-Mart, and Mardel.)

I finally finished putting every last ornament in it's place, and this is what my 'oh-so-perfect' linen board looks like:

That was you falling over with jealousy. Just kidding.

And this is where I have it hanging in my house:

Right in the dining room for all the world to see! I know it's January 3, but I can't bring myself to take it down. Do you think anyone will notice the ornaments if I leave it up all year?

Good thing is, once I finally decide to put the ornaments away, I still have plenty of uses for it.

So, what do you think?