DIY: Advent calendar with MOPPE
Christmas is just around the corner! Almost as important as the holiday itself is the joyful anticipation that we celebrate each year with a beautiful Advent calendar. Want to make one yourself without too much effort? Then we have a great idea for you: The MOPPE can become a calendar for the most important dates in December that you can use again every year, but that still cuts a striking figure when the holidays are over. Here we’ll show you how it’s done.
You will need:
- MOPPE mini storage chest
- VINTERFEST paper napkin
- VINTERFEST ball ornament
- VINTERFEST cookie cutters
- VINTER 2019 ribbon
- white air-drying modelling paste
- white acrylic paint
- napkin bands
- bristle brush about 2–3 cm wide
- small letter stamps (about 0.5–1 cm tall)
- nail scissors
- ruler
- pencil
- toothpick
1. Prime the MOPPE
Use the brush to apply white acrylic paint to the front of all six MOPPE drawers. Also paint the storage chest’s sides. You’ll get nice coverage if you apply two coats of paint.
2. Cutting out the napkin motif
Cut out the VINTER napkins’ circular motif three times. You need the whole ornament once and its upper half twice. Now quarter the ornaments using the ruler and pencil and arrange the individual pieces on the drawers as shown below.
3. Stick on the napkin motif
Now take the individual parts in hand one after the other and carefully separate the upper layer of napkin with the imprint. Then use the brush to apply a thin layer of napkin paste to the relevant part of the MOPPE drawer. Put the motif on neatly, let it dry briefly and then brush another thin layer of paste over the motif so that it sticks smoothly. This is how you attach all the parts to the storage chest.
4. Punching out stars
Use a rolling pin to neatly roll out a piece of modelling paste. The flat mass should be about half a centimetre high. Then cut out six pendants with your choice of star cookie cutter.
5. Label the star pendants
First use the toothpick to punch a small hole in a point of the star. Now you can stamp the lettering with the small letter stamps. One pendant is for St. Nicholas Day, one for Christmas Eve, and the other four for the Sundays of Advent.
6. Decorate the star pendants
Tie one of the small Christmas tree bulbs with a string to each of the star pendants. Wrap the presents and tie the completed pendants to them so that they hang out in the correct position when the drawer is closed.
By
Text and photography: Samuela Heil
