Advent Calendar part one

I figured the best way of doing the advent calendar was in parts, as it is going to take a while to complete, and I don't want to stop posting on here due to the fact I haven't finished a piece! So today is part one. The first thing was to put it together of course. I forgot to take a photo of it when it was done, so you'll have to forgive me for that. It was relatively easy to put together, the pieces all have letters to identify them. I used cement glue to stick it together as I don't have a glue gun (perhaps something to add to my list) After I did this (and obviously waited for it to dry) I coated the whole thing with black gesso.

As well as the wooden structure, there are 25 chipboard boxes, and wooden numbers to accompany them. They can be glued with normal glue, I used glossy accents. Here is the box in its glued, undecorated form.

Now one thing you have to be wary of; these fit into the calendar very snugly and, as such, you can't really decorate the outside of it with paper beyond the front. Knowing that, I used distress paint to paint around the outside. I split the boxes in half, painting 13 of them with fired brick and 12 with gathered twigs.

Once dry, I chose the papers needed for the front, cut them to size (4.4 cm square for those who are wondering) and inked the edges with weathered wood distress ink pad.

As you can see I used damask for both, but different colours. This is part of a Hobbycraft christmas pad I have in my stash.

Once the glue (matt sealer) is dry, get your cutting board and a sharp craft knife, and cut the little dip in the box.

Just to reiterate - make sure the knife is sharp. I didn't do this and tore some. I inked the frayed bits with weathered wood so that it didn't show up too much.

Finally, I used some gold and silver distress paint on the wooden letters, tapping it instead of painting it so that it showed the wood through at points.

And that's it for the first part. It may not seem like much so far but I've been stuck for ideas on this so anything is progress! I'm undecided on whether to paper the inside of the boxes. What do you think?

I forgot - I used a dabber to pur bronze between the boxes. Just thought it added something. 

Spending wise I've done a bit unfortunately. I took £50 out of the cashpoint yesterday and bought two Olay Venus razors (on special offer in Asda - add the discount and it was £8.95) took mum for steak at Spoons (two steak meals plus sauce and onion rings £17.37) bought some cat food, donuts, cheese straws, paninis, eggs, tuna pasta bake, for £7.04 and then I bought a set of wooden stamps I found in a charity shop for £10. Ordinarily I wouldn't have bought them, but as you crafters will know wooden stamps can be blummin expensive, so to get a dozen for a tenner is a good bargain. Wooden stamps are the only ones that can be used with UTEE, so getting a few more was a good idea.

Finally the tasks

1. starry night cross stitch (DONE

2. Project book (DONE)

3.Complete book plans (no progress)

4. Read and review 100 books (62/100)

5. Make 14 christmas presents (50%)

6. Make 11 birthday presents (one more to do)

7. make calendar, box and tags (started on calendar)

8. Hit minimum savings target (34%)

9. Kili cross stitch (on page 5/9)

10. 50,000 words (1533/50,000)

Ems