Victorian Christmas Advent Calendar

 Good Evening all,

I am obsessed with building little houses lately, I love making 3-D projects on canvas or substrate.  Right now I am all about Victorian storefronts, here is an advent calendar I made to look like a scene right out of Dickens Christmas Carol. Enjoy!

The finished size is 30"x17" and 2" deep.  The frame is made with MDF and the boxes are 2"x2".

The storefronts are made with chipboard that i bend, shape and layer into a 3-D form.  I use 3M Scotch glue quick drying tacky glule to hold everything together I found this as the best product for crafts.

The doors have black cardstock behind the window, then i fill them with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, makes it look like glass window.  For the storefront windows I used clear acetate, this protects the inside decor and keeps dust down.

I printed some toy Victorian images, cut them out and stood them up in the window to look like a window display.  I wrote the shop names on with a paint pen.

The curved window are my favorite!!  Everything is painted with acrylic paints.  I start by painting the base color, add some distressing with light gray, then add brown especially in the edges and corners.  Finally i bring in highlights- a lighter base color.

All decoration are the smallest items i could find a the craft store.  The garland and wreaths are made with green matte pipecleaner, I twisted two together so they were fullier.  I had to trim the pipecleaner otherwise it was too thick and long.

The bay window is removable and behind it is the battery pack for the mini LED lights.  The LED Lights are in the storefronts, lights up the decor.

The bricks are made with 1" insulation foam that you can buy from the hardware store.  I distress the top of foam with scissors then carve the bricks into the foam with my hot knife pen used on foam.  Layers and layers of paint make it look old and worn.  Start with dark and work up to light.

I used matte gel medium to adhere fake snow to the windows and garland.

Boxes are made with thin (think cereal box thickness) chipboard and covered with paper.

I am very happy with the final result.