Box Rooms for Advent

 This year my grandkids will assemble a room. I can't show the final outcome, because they have to make several things along the way, but I will show some process. 

I used a mandarin orange box and spray painted the top red and the bottom green.  The red box will become a living room; the green box will be the kitchen. 

1. The floor: it needs to be coloured and glued in.

Before I get to the second step, I want to show the colour scheme of each room. I am very grateful to my sister-in-law's amazing collection of paper and her generousity. 

First, the living room: the walls will be the blue french provincial print, the rust will be the fireplace and the bright circles will be a chair. 

The kitchen: Lime green cupboards, striped walls, a rust counter, and a spotted table:

2. Walls. They are marked with where some of the things need to go. I like to be open to creative decisions, but in this case, I needed to make sure everything will fit. 

3. Kitchen: counter and tap. This shows the layout.                               

 Living room: fireplace and swag decoration

4. Windows

5. Kitchen: cupboards (see photo above)             Living room: lamp

6. Kitchen: lamp                                                    Living room: logs in a basket

7. Kitchen: fridge                                                   Living room: fire

The fridge door closes with a magnet. 

8. Kitchen - cupboard contents                               

 

Living room: chair. I love the challenge of making a 3D object out of a single piece of paper. 

9. Kitchen - recycling bin. It needs to be assembled.               

Living room - bookshelf. This shows the room laid out with as many items as I could set in place.

10. Kitchen - Blue bowl                                                 Living room - Books

11. Kitchen - table                                                         Living room - Books 2

12. Kitchen - yellow mixing bowl                                   Living room - Books to make 

 

13. Kitchen - ingredients                                                Living room - decor: candles, photos, 

                                                                                        vase, clock (You can see many of these 

                                                                                        items in the photo above.)

14. Kitchen - cookie sheet and cookies                            Living room - plants

15. Kitchen -  cat                                                                Living room - cat

16. Tree. The kitchen and living room both have trees. 

17. Decorations:

18 and 19. Presents - The boxes need to be made, and the gifts put into them.

20. The kids:

Birthday Number: 40

 

Gingko Leaf Book

 I was attracted to the gingko leaf for the shape, but I stayed for the meaning: peace, hope, vitality and duality. 

This is a zig zag or snake book made with a large piece of paper with characters on it. This was a format that allowed me to use the whole piece of paper.  

The leaf doesn't really twirl, but that is what I wanted to suggest.

This is how it unfurls.