Advent Calendar 2025

This year, my DD, knowing I love paper crafting, gave me the 2025 Spellbinders Advent Calendar.  What fun!  I saw folks opening them last year and thought it would be so much fun.  It is! :D  

This is what the box looks like when opened and Day One calendar piece is opened:

Here's a look at what came in it:

Day 1: Cute little Dog and Sentiment die set

The first day was a set of dies to create this funny little dog - and a great sentiment to go with it.  I didn't get the dog put together quite right, but I had fun anyway.  And, after looking at the Spellbinder's blog, I see where I went wrong & will make a dog that's even better next time.  Here's one made the correct way:

I think it took me until day 5 to figure out that on the inside of most of the flaps were pictures that showed how they went together!  For the first several days I had to go to the Spellbinders Advent Calendar blog post to see how it was supposed to look - that's where I figured out that one of those dies had been for the tongue!

Day 2: Mushroom Scene stamp

I'm so glad to have this stamp!  I found out when "Mushrooms" was a theme for a swap this year, that I didn't really have much for that theme - so this is a great addition.

Day 3: Magician's Hat & Wand die set

The hat even came with a rabbit to pop out of it!  Might be good for a birthday card?  Could make it with wand attached by a piece of acetate to the rabbit and have the wand actually lift the rabbit out of the hat!  I'm also thinking the bunny could be peeking out of a basket for Easter!  For most of these cutting dies, I make two examples.  The first is die cut all from white cardstock and then colored.  This is the one that will go in my catalog book that tells me where to find the dies in my stash.  The 2nd is often die cut from colored pieces once I've seen how it all goes together and decide what colors to use.

Day 4: Rubber Stamp die set

What a fun set of dies this time!  They make a rubber stamp with 3 possible messages: Hello You, Love You, and Thank You.  I can see myself using this to make some fun cards.  You can certainly tell which handle was white cardstock colored with ink, and which was black cardstock!  Just assume the first was well worn!

Day 5:  Flowers die set

These flowers are similar to some I already have, but one can ALWAYS use more flowers!

Day 6: Strip embossing folder 

This looks like a pretty useful embossing folder.  It can be used on a narrow strip to be added to something, OR it can be used directly on a card to make a border! 

Day 7: Butterfly stencils

I've mostly been using layering stencils lately, but these 3 stencils of butterflies will be great for so many projects!

Day 8: Banner Sentiment die set

Such a great little set - easy to use since there is an entire set of plain banners to use to back the word ones.  I can see this being an easy "go to" for cards.

Day 9: Lavender Sequins

So pretty!  Two different sizes of iridescent lavender sequins will add sparkle to many projects. 

Day 10: Slice of Bread/Toast with Jam/Peanut Butter die set

I made both with jam - so cute!  I ended up needing a 3rd one, so I made him with peanut butter:

Day 11: Sentiment Stamps

Though small, this set has four sentiment stamps that will be quite useful!

Day 12: Old-Fashioned Telephone die set

I'm only half-way through this Advent Calendar and already I've gotten some really fun things.  I really like this die set.  I had a friend that went through her stamps, kept what she wanted and sent some of the remainder to me.  One of the stamp sets I got from her was sentiments designed to go with a telephone, but she kept the telephone stamp from the set and I didn't have any others.  Now I have a die set that will work GREAT with those sentiments!

 

Day 13: Flowered Strip Embossing Folder:

  

Another embossing folder that will be quite useful for card making.

 

I fully intended to showcase each one, but if I got pictures of each individually, I lost them somehow!  But not to worry.  I know that this is what I got the following days - 

• Day 14 -  worm/leaf/raindrops die set
• Day 15 - Fish Bowl die set

I DID get a picture of them - chose to use a thick vellum to create the bowl - would have been better with thinner vellum to see through to the inside better!

 

• Day 16 -  set of 3 greetings banners (dies)
• Day 17 - clear sequins
• Day 18 - wavy rainbow die
• Day 19 - sentiment stamps
• Day 20 - spaceship dies
• Day 21 - "best wishes" dies 
• Day 22 - mandala (layered stencils)
• Day 23 - roller skates dies (could also make boots
• Day 24 - horseshoe & clover

And now you have a chance to see if you can find examples of each on the following scrapbook pages! (I've got a picture of the full double-paged spread, and then closeups of each page.)

It was so much fun to open the doors and find the goodies each day - and fun to make this scrapbook spread to showcase what I got!