A dear friend is retiring at the end of the month. I decided to take a twist on the season's advent calendar to commemorate her life's work by making a retirement advent calendar, "A Bouquet of Memories from Natural History."
I took the calendar and stripped it down to it's base so that I had a sturdy cardboard backing and an easy hook at the top for the calendar to hang on.
Then, I cut velcro squares into quads. (Twice as many needed for the receiving side.) I arranged those quads on the top of the calendar. Around each piece of velcro I wrote a little "happy memory prompt" ... this is a retiring attorney so things like "best court moment," "truth stranger than fiction," "best argument"...
Then, I cut and taped the calendar for December 2011 to the base.
For this project, I used the page on the calendar where it gives you a "preview" of all the pictures. I cut each of those mini-pictures around its edges to make small "advent cards."
I took each advent card and put a small piece of velcro for the attaching side on the back and covered the prompts.
Then, on the front page of the calendar, I attached the second set of receiving velcro at the bottom of the full size picture.
The front page was attached to the backboard with clips and ribbons. And voila!
By the end of the month, as she takes one flower from the top and places it onto the bottom, she will create a bouquet and each day, she'll have a new prompt of happy memories to make the last few weeks fun.
This is a great recycling/reuse project for calendars, which are also abundant at this time of year. I usually cut the gorgeous prints and (re)use them for cards, wrapping paper or wall hangings.
This is a new and exciting use and a fun way to build anticipation for a special occasion!
It would be cool to make this a scalable project. I enjoyed the physicality of playing with the calendar, but one could imagine a template in iphoto or a calendar service where one could select the advent card icons and write the text for the prompts and then send it to someone as a printable or virtual special event advent calendar.... ooh, possibilities!
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