 Hey everybody it's Sam at Mixed Up Craft, thank you for watching my tutorial today. I'm going to be showing you how to make what I'm going to call a Valentine Advent. So I was actually requested by three ladies to do something like this over Christmas, but I'd already done my Christmas projects, had them planned and I'd already done my Advent. So I thought I would relook it, relook at doing it in a Valentine's, in this Valentine's series. But saying that you can easily do this for any occasion and I actually think this would be a really nice gift to send to someone who's maybe missing home, maybe they're a student and you know they're living, it's their first time away from home, you could fill this with treats, little home comforts, things that they might miss. But for Valentine's the idea is that you put nice little treats in it, you can put the things in it that say like oh I'll give you a foot massage or I'll do the washing up tonight. But then that would also work well for Mother's Day and you could put little things in there that you're going to do, you know, treat your mum. You can put vouchers in there, little jewelry and things like that. So this is how it looks, it looks like a mini album. I've used these lovely papers which work great for Valentine's, I've got a nice big heart in the middle and then just that from me to you, which I just thought worked really well. Then you open up the sides and it opens up and you have these boxes. So the Advent ones, you know, lots of brands have done them, so in a lot of the shops in the UK, the big department stores, your perfume brands, Jo Malone things like that, they've done very similar of these, much larger ones with 12 boxes on each side. So you can certainly, once you see how I do this, it's very easy to adapt and make for any size that you want to do. But I've done these ones, so we've got four smaller boxes and then these, or four square and then these rectangle ones. So what I've done differently with mine, and I just think it's going to be a bit easier for people that are following the tutorial and for anybody that's new, because I always try to remember that there is always someone new watching my channel and someone that may be brand new to papercrafting. You can do boxes with lids, so if you would prefer that and stick the bottom of the box with glue to this, so they're solid, then that's fine, you can do that. You can then put maybe heavier items in. What I've done is I've made these boxes so they all open at the top, but they are actually all attached by Velcro. So I'll just take some off here, so we've got, you can see there, okay. I've reinforced the backs as well, just so you've got that added strength and then they're very easy to obviously just put back in place. But I just think it's much easier to make this kind of box than making a box with a lid, because sometimes people, they message me and you know, I've seen it in forums, they get frustrated that they've made the lid too tight or too small, even by following the simple, easy kind of box, gift box tutorials. And I don't want people getting frustrated. We've all done it. We've got frustrated with the project and thrown it in the bin. I know I have. So I just thought I'm going to do them this way. And what I've done is this middle box is actually stuck to this. So this one doesn't come away. So the idea is, is that you remove these boxes to get into this one, which has fallen inside, but wants the stuff in it that way. So it's got nice kind of like interaction to it. You know, whoever gets this, well, I know who's getting it, but you know, they've got to have a little route around and kind of play around with it, but also they can keep it. So you might want to, you know, really reinforce it, make the boxes with the lid, stick it all down, you know, and it could be a nice little storage or keepsake for, you know, your son or your daughter, you know, whoever you want to give it to. They are just, these are two and three quarters by two and three quarters. So they do fit. Oh, no, I've taken it out. There it is, a tonnex TK. Okay. So that's probably the, because these are actually got a bit of weight to them because they've got a biscuit base. So, you know, they will hold on here. If you do want to start to add more heavier items, then I would look at, you know, possibly sticking the boxes down, but I'm going to be putting jewelry and make sure I've got that right, which should be a jewelry, but you'll see that it does stay. And then once they're together, obviously they kind of hold each other in place as well there anyway, jewelry, all sorts can fit in there. So I've been talking long enough. It's very straight. It is straightforward to make. And I just think it's a really wonderful gift. So thank you to the ladies that have, you know, requested for this one to be done. I hope you like my twist on that, you know, this version. And I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Okay, so there are lots of bits and pieces to this one, but I've gone ahead and done all of the boxes bar, one of this size and one of this size. And then just to show you how to cover your case. So I've gone ahead and done seven of the boxes there, covered them all. They all look great. And then I've done this one here. And I've got that one. I haven't stuck it down yet, just because I want to make sure that obviously I'm going to have them, you know, I might want that one on the other side, for example, but then I've got the love you all done as well. So just use some of my alphabet dies and just cut that using the glittered cardstock, which I've also used on the lovely heart there as well. So it's the nice things just kind of go away, you know, get all those pieces ready. And then you can, you know, just put it all together at the end. So I've cut a few bits out from the paper pad. Again, I'll probably put them on the front. That's for the top of the box. I'm going to talk through with you. Got my grey board there. Then the ribbon, the Velcro dots. This is one of the boxes, the thin one, and that's the small one. So I'm going to talk you through that. You might need that to cover the front. So this is the big heart. And it's beautiful. I've used it on a few now and I've done a few samples with it as well. It really is lovely when it comes together. And I've die cut three of them on top of each other there. So one in that glitter and then two in the white with my 300 card, you know, GSM cardstock. It's really nice and strong now. And then I've got another little heart to go in the centre of it. And that's from the card making magic. It's the landmark occasions. This one's called the spectacular swirl die set. That's what I've used there. So this is the paper I'm using to cover the front. And then that's going to be for the spine. We'll do that after I've showed you the boxes. And this is the paper pad. So it is one from last year. And it came out after Valentine's I believe as well. Because I never used it for Valentine's last year. And I remember thinking when I got it that this would work perfect for Valentine's. So it's quite good that I've, you know, been able to use it now. I know you can still get it online. And it can be used, obviously, not just for Valentine's either. So yeah, really like this one, making memories by first edition. Okay, so let's get into the boxes. So you're going to need eight. Like I said, I've already done seven. So you'll want eight pieces, make sure I get the right one. This one here. Eight pieces of eight and a quarter by six. Okay, so you can cut two of these from a piece of 12 by 12. And you want to score along the eight and a quarter side, you want to score it one and a half, three and seven eighths of an inch, five and three eighths of an inch, and seven and three quarters. Then rotate it on the six inch side and you're going to score it one and a half, three and seven eighths of an inch, and five and three eighths of an inch. So that one you need eight. And then this one here you just need two because it's that thinner one. And this is a piece again of eight and a quarter by six and a half. And along the eight and a quarter side, you want to score it one and a half and six and three quarters. And then rotate it and you're going to score it one and a half, three, four and a half and six. Okay, so that's everything. Like I said, two of those. And then your grey board. This is the two mil and this I get on Amazon. And this you want two pieces that are six by eight. That's going to be for the front and back. And then for the spine, you want a piece that is three and a quarter by eight. I don't think I'm going to make that any shorter because I think that was just the right, you know, you think that they go together either side. And then that sits on there because I've got a little bit of bulk. Yeah, no, that's perfect because I want it nice and tight. So I think I trimmed it down beforehand. Now also, some people always ask how I cut these things. So whenever I use the grey board, I bring in my Fisker's Trimmer and I've got old blades in mine. So these blades are blunt blades. Basically, they won't cut hard stock and paper is just terrible, but they're perfect for cutting grey boards. So don't throw the blades away. You'll be surprised how long you can last. I mean, actually, I've had these for years now and I'm still using them. So yeah, just pop it in. And I tend to do a few cuts, you know, on one side and then flip it over, cut on the back side, and it will then just cut right through. So that's what I do. And lots of other carfters do that as well. It's just a good way to do it. Or you can use a cutting knife and a metal ruler as well. Okay, so all the scoring's done. We'll start putting together the boxes. Okay, so we'll do this one first. This is just to do those smaller boxes. So you just want to fold, I'm just looking for mine. It's under another project. Just going to fold and burnish all the score lines on both of those pieces. Obviously, you'll have a lot more. And then so we'll start again with this one. So you will have a half inch tab. You want that on the right hand side. And then you'll have another kind of, this one I think is 5 eighths. And that's at the top. So at the bottom you should just have your one and a half inch score line. You just want to cut up all the score lines to that one and a half. So that one, that one, and that one. And then this last one here you just want to cut and then remove that completely. I'm just cutting it on an angle because that's going to create the tab. Then work your way up along this side and cut up that score line. But this one you want to cut all the way across. You go and pass the tab score line and to that then, which would be the second score line. And remove that one completely. I'll lay this down in a minute so you can see exactly how it should look. And then just take another little wedge off the top. So you'll see there now we've created this tab and this is going to become the back like so because you want that join at the back. Just visually looks nicer. So back along this bit you want to just cut down past the first score line down to the second. Again pass the first down to the second. And then on these outer ones here you can remove that tab at the top because it's just not needed anymore. This one here now becomes your little lip to kind of keep the box closed and secure it. So leave that top now for the minute. Go back along the bottom here. And the two squares you just want to take some wedges off of those because they're going to be the tabs to fold in which we'll glue later. And if I'm right the way I've cut this one, yeah I've got the okay like so. Then we're going to stick it together. So I'm just going to grab my glue and you just want to rub rub you just want to run some glue just along the tab there and just fold that in half and then in half again. Okay and then I'm just going to leave that to one side and I'm going to go to this one. So you will have all of these strips one and a half inch kind of strips and then that half inch tab at the top. You want to then go to one of the sides here which I forgot to burn it. Okay and you're going to cut up every one of those. I love this paper it's so pretty. That one, that one and that one and then just cut that off so you've got a nice right angle. You're going to cut into it a little bit but I always like to do that last because if you cut in too much your box won't close it will just kind of pop open. So again on the opposite end just cut in to all of those and cut up that one there. Okay then with this one you put it together slightly different so this is actually going to be the closure of that bit that's going to be the little lip that goes in. So these two outer ones here you want to take a wedge off so you've got about half an inch there and then take a nice wedge off of them. You may again have to cut in a little bit more in a minute but you want to have a little bit of a lip so you don't have any gaps in the box. So I'll just lie that down so that's what you should have. Okay so you've got these six squares all free here and then this top piece. So what you want to do now is bring it up because it's going to close away from you so this side here is what's going to be stuck to the book. So this will be the right way up this so if you're not using a if you're using a directional paper it still works because this is all facing the right way. These last two these two here you want to be the last ones that you stick down because that's the right way up all your pattern here that'll be upside down that's back to front so then what you want to do is so the top two leave up put some glue on the middle one and then the bottom one okay you want to bring up around and just square that off you could probably have taken a little bit off of the side of that actually I'll just go in now cut that away so just make sure you've got nothing overhanging but you don't want to cut those ones so these two here just take a little wedge off the side like so so then again I'm just going to pop some glue on the top of the middle one and then bring up the bottom one I don't have anything overhanging now oh that's drying then the last one can go over there and it'll be a nice square so it'll just hide anything underneath so again just pop a bit of glue let that one dry and then again I could go back to this one here now we've got our little box and those tabs will go in on the side like so just push them in a little bit more it's just to you know stop people really kind of looking in but it does keep the box in its shape and then that will close in now if it closes okay without you cutting anything away then leave it don't cut any more off just leave it as it is so mine's fine I'm not going to cut anything more off that if it doesn't and you just want to shave a little bit off the edges of that tab that I've just put in there but that's that box ready so like I said it's going to open up that way so then you'll have your decoration will go over the front like so that's if you want to do it like I've done it so these here you'll want two pieces that are five by one and a quarter okay but I will do that in a bit so there's those two done back to this one so that's all dried now again it's going to fold away from you that's going to go you know this this piece will be against the back of the book so this is the last one that you're going to stick down so I'm going to fold that one down pop some glue on there pop that one down pop that one down and then pop the last one down and then I'm just going to grab my ruler and just go in there spread that all out it's all stuck down okay and then actually you want to take a little bit off of the front of this one not a lot just a little bit okay and the front of that one there you don't need to take it off the other one and now you'll see you've got a little opening and then that will close in and again it's like the other box if it's a bit tight so that one is so that one's fine this one's a bit tight you want to take a little bit off not a lot because that's what I mean if you take too much it's just going to pop open so just a little bit perfect and now I've got a nice tight closure and that's going to stick that back bit we'll stick against it and then we'll decorate all of that so that's how you make the boxes so you want to go ahead now get all of those done I'm going to tidy this up and then we can start covering our cover okay so we've got our three pieces of greyboard now because I want to have the same covering all of these pieces you might as well just stick these together and cover the whole thing you can stick one and do it separate if you want but it's easiest to work as if this is one piece of paper so what I'm going to do is grab my red tape and because I'm going to be going over this on the spine I'm not too worried that you know it's just the red tape that I'm laying down because I am going to be putting more over it later so I'm just going to run a strip along here doesn't matter how wide your tape is I mean you want it to be roughly around that's a like half an inch or something which is like your standard you know tape width and then I'm going to just lay this one down over the top like so this actual join will go right down the middle of the spine so I'm not you know too worried about that not matching okay so that's okay so that's done so flip it over and then you're going to pop all this inside here now you'll want to trim a little well yeah well you can it's up to you actually you can trim some off if not just leave it I'm not going to trim anything off the top of the bottom I'm going to keep that just how it is stick that one down and then this one here and this one you want to stick it so you've got about quarter of an inch gap okay that will be a nice amount of space so that you won't crack your or split your paper when we come to bend it around like so and then stick this one down okay while that's just drying I'm going to trim a bit off I don't need all that actually coming over and then I can use some of this because it's a nice paper to fussy cut so I'm just putting my one inch ruler in against that and I'm just going to cut straight down oh that was really badly done oh gosh there we go yes so look I can fussy cut these pieces still so at least that can be used and then I'm going to do the same on this end here I have to twist it around and then I think I'm going to even do it along here as well okay so that's a little bit better and then you can just bring up the sides there once obviously we're going to cover all the inside but now you'll see that all wraps around and make sure it's up the right way isn't that a nice book cover especially if you you know I don't know you just got lots of just nice things you know the person you love just to fill it would make a nice mini album cover like I said that's going to be covered with some stripey trim in a minute but now I'm really pleased with that it's made me kind of think about how I'm going to decorate the front a bit differently now because I was going to put another mat over it but I don't know we'll see I might frame that off with white background actually and then we can change it up a bit anyway now you just want to fold up the sides just to kind of help it fold into place like so and then I'm just wondering whether I'm going to because this is coated again I'm going to stick this in how I usually do my album so I'm going to add my glue just across the corners there so down a little bit on each side and all up in the corner and then just bring this in so you get a nice square on the grayboard and just push that all down around it just do that on the other three corners okay and then I'm going to just fold up the corners again because they've kind of got that other piece now against it again just fold that up and then I think I'm going to use I don't know so parts of me think I want to use some red tape because this is quite thick now I'm going to use Kalao because when the Kalao dries it is brilliant it just can take a little while when you're working with thick card and because this is coated so I'm going to run up my glue along there all along the side a lot of this will spread out so you don't need to go too too crazy and then bring it across I'm just going to bring in the bone folder and just bring up the sides and fold it over so I'm going to just have to hold up what I'm going to do is grab my pegs there we go that's much much easier so you just want to go around now and do that on all the other side so just glue them all down and I'm just going to keep those pegs all in place okay so that's all stuck down and then I'm just kind of pushing in the sides there just to help it all come round gotta make sure it is up right away though it's easy to get upside down I'm not going to add metal corners to this you can by all means I've done that in many many videos but this one I think I'm just going to keep as it is okay then you want to decorate the side the well if yours has a funny join like mine then you'll want to do something to cover it so I have got this stripey piece here so my spine is what did I say that was for no three and a half so I'm going to do just a two inch strip so yeah I'm going to cut a two inch strip so let's just don't need that one so let's do two inches open this one up and I'm going to have that run right down through the middle you can add obviously a lot more to it as well if you want but it means I could have now some writing on that and you'll be able to see it but it just disguises that one you could have it coming around onto the side here like mini albums that I've done before you can bring the the spine piece so it comes over this side a little bit and then wraps around but I'm just going to keep that one going through like so so I'm going to add a red tape to this one because it's going to be against that very shiny surface so I'm just going to cover this actually I'm going to use my other I'm going to use this one instead so I'm just going to cover this piece quickly okay so just taking all the backing off and then you might find it easier to actually have it like closed so you can see you know where the join is and then you can make sure you get it in the middle so I'm going to sit that one just there just pull that nice and tall and just cover it like so there we go that all matches nicely next we want to cover the inside now I was thinking white but you've got to use something that is going to obviously look nice with the boxes against it and I just thought the white will really help those boxes stand out so I want to get my um get mine in order so love and a heart and then I'll have hay and that heart down there maybe let's see for a minute and then that one will go in the middle I think it's going to look nice against white how's that looking on camera yeah they just really pop or any kind of plain color I mean they probably look nice against a nice dark pink as well and then on this side I'm going to have the love down here that love and then that one yeah just cut the wrong measurements for that so this white piece that I've stuck on all of them is two by two and then my little piece that I've just fussy cut there just goes in the middle and then I've done some faux stitching which I'll add in a moment but then I think that one is going to go like that and then that box will be in the middle of that one there and then the love you which I think ties it all together yay now just need to make my mind up if I definitely want the white I'm just going to have a little look through my cardstock just to be a hundred percent sure because I think I might put something down that middle section because I've got here I could you could write a little bit there and have from me too I could just stick different little decorative pieces although they are completely lost so I'm going to have a little play around and then I'll give you the measurements for what we need that okay so I've decided to go for this real hot pink so I'm now going to stick this down so these are both seven and three quarters squared yeah so just stick them so they cover all of the page and then they go halfway into the spine and then I'm going to cover that with something else oh also before you stick this down if you want your ribbon coming out so I'm just I'm still thinking I was going to do a whole punched no I'm not I think I'm being lazy I'm going to turn my glue gun on and I'm going to use some ribbon and hot glue it in there before I seal it okay so I'm just sticking that in the middle there and then I've also run some double-sided tape there this is still tacky enough for me to lay down actually no I don't want to risk those edges I'm just going to go around that again I'll now go nicely over there and stick to that double-sided tape because like I said it's just that coating around the frame here so it just gives me a little bit more strength sorry I'm talking really slow there because I'm concentrating so yeah I'm just going to repeat the same on this side here find where the folds are and just work the cardstock into there while it's still a little bit that glue is still a bit tacky because then the cardstock can move a little bit because you know you're probably not going to have it down flat too much now it will be you know more in this shape everything's nice and flat I'm just going to tie off the ribbons I've got quite a lot here it wasn't enough I didn't think one piece would have been enough so I mean it won't close actually completely so you don't need to go that mad so it's going to be like that then I've gone and cut this strip here which is going to continue from the strip around the back so I've done two by seven and three quarters and that will join up like so and it sits nicely through the middle there so I'm just going to grab some more of my glue I'm pleased with that right so next now you'll see I think they really pop against the pink and everything matches really nicely together okay so I started sticking them down in the video and then when I done them all I was not happy with it because I started to use these and that basically they're square Velcro pads but they were ones that I used to use under like a chair or a rug to stop it sliding and I thought oh yeah they'll be good because they're really strong they're too strong and they just they just didn't work with this at all so I carefully went and peeled them off and then with these ones here I've gone and used my dot and dab ones on the back and they just it peels off much much better but what I've also gone and done is I found that if you reinforce the backs if you're using like a this is like borderline paper card from that pack so you do want I mean ideally I would probably say and I will add this in when I do my intro is use maybe like a 300 gsm cardstock and then decorate maybe the sides and stuff with pattern paper or if you're going to do it like me because this still works now what I've done is I've just cut some of my 300 gsm cardstock and I've put it on the back and then put the Velcro dot so yeah a few things but it just having that reinforcement and then I've used the calow in between we all know I go on about it enough it's so hard now it's you know it's just stiffened it and it just allows it to be able to be pulled off that and yeah I just I prefer it much better so what I done is also is because you would have missed that now because I can't obviously take these ones off these are actually stuck with glue the two in the middle are stuck permanently because the idea is that you remove these ones and then you can then get in to that one and take the stuff out okay so that one is in place so stick these ones down first and then can't do it without looking at it there we go so stick them down first and then you can you know line these up so you want to get these in the middle so just lined it up with my one there needs to put a bit of glue in the corner of that because it's coming undone it's annoying me and then it'll hold it in better um so line this one up with the edge of this box and then just come down so you've got enough I just need to line my buck up with that again so these are using the dot and dab ones which are 20 mil but I only had six of them left so the last ones I'm using my 16 mil velcro dots okay so again that one there I can just line up now and pop in there and it just it looks and it works so much better you can actually pull them off so these ones I need to stick down permanently because I haven't put these ones in place yet so just gonna line that one up there but I love it I really do like this I can't wait to fill it and um here you don't want to go crazy with what you're putting in it obviously if you do want to stick them down like I've mentioned before then you just have to rework the way that you maybe have them so you can open that from this side or yeah you just have to look into that but you can have them that way or like I said use you know have the ones with the lid and then pop that one there and then we'll get that one stuck just close that one up and then that one and then it all closes up really nice and I don't know if this has been edited out or not because obviously I had to take a few bits out but I've done the front so I've just backed it with some white put it on some foam adhesive and I've put from me to you and I think it looks really really nice but I'm much much happier now with those um with the Velcro dots rather than those squares that I use so yeah don't you don't want something that's really tough like they are they're quite because they are to hold like a carpet so they're they are pretty I mean they're great but it's too much for just that soft kind of cardstock so yeah okay so that is everything just let's hide it away so there you have it I'm like I said very very pleased with this I'm going to fill it now with some more sweet treats scratch card some jewelry might put a voucher of some kind or something in there I'm just having a little think and yeah I've got a few other nice little bits that I'm going to put in there but as I mentioned before great for friend mail I think it's a really nice thing because you don't want to go crazy with the weight I would have said that at the beginning because it's the Velcro I mean if you're sticking them on there and you're doing the lid separately then yes you can you know put more of a weighted object in there but you know for friend mail to put like I don't know little shaker pieces and some sequins little dies little stamps all those things are nice lightweight pieces but the really nicest little gifts so that will work really well and obviously what I'm putting in but also when it's sandwiched together it does stay you know together as well so that will help it anyway and I just really like it it's just really unusual so I'm pleased that it's come together I hope you like my version of it like I said there are many ways to be able to change this to suit your needs and for you know all the different occasions as well but I do think it's nice to send to somebody who is you know maybe a bit homesick missing some little treats and stuff like that then I think this is a really nice thing to send them so I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial if you did please hit the like button and consider subscribing so you get to see more thanks for watching