Advent Calendar 13x13 MDF Christmas Kit with Papers Stickers

These Advent Calendars come as a kit to assemble, they are a wonderful project for a special person's Christmas gift.

This wooden MDF Craft Project Advent Calendar measures 33cm x 33cm (13x13 inches)

*Comes Packaged Flat, Very Easy To Assemble, Wood glue will be required and tape for the insert boxes.

This Advent Calendar is a fabulous product that is made of quality Australian timber MDF press boards and the insert boxes from Australian bookbinders board.

We have also included 2 Number Sticker Sheers in Gold and the Kaisercraft Peppermint Kisses 12x12 Paper Collection Pack.

Paint; ink; chalk; paper and embellish your way to a truly unique piece of art.

This unit features all the MDF pieces, number stickers and bookbinders board insert boxes ready to decorate then glue or glue then decorate; the choice is yours.

Made in Australia.

Click Below to watch a video showing how to assemble an Advent Calendar 

Assembly Instructions.

Once unpacked the Advent Calendar will contain 2 Sheets of Gold Numbers, Kaisercraft Peppermint Kisses 12x12 Paper Pack, 24 Laser Cut Chipboard Drawers, a large MDF Back Panel and a number of other MDF parts as shown in the picture below. 

The two parts marked A below are joined by tabs and are 32.6cm long – just a few millimetres longer than the four parts marked B which are 32cm long.

There are two shorter parts marked C and 20 parts marked E (joined into two sheets of 10).

We would recommend that the parts are painted before they are separated since they are much easier to hold that way.

Do not paint the tabs since they will then be more difficult to insert into their respective slots.

The part marked D on the picture only needs its edges painted while all other parts should be painted on both sides (although, as mentioned, tabs should be avoided). 

The Back Panel is also best painted at this stage. You should paint all around the edges but you do not need to paint the back or the centre if you intend to cover it with paper. Try to avoid getting paint inside the slots in the board since it will make assembly more difficult.

The best way we have found to separate the tabbed parts is using sharp scissors but you can also use a strong, sharp craft knife. Tidy up the cut edges, especially on either side of each of the small pieces (marked E on the image), using a sharp knife or a file.

The next image shows the painted Back Panel and indicates where each tabbed piece goes on the board. Place the Back Panel flat on a strong desk or table and insert the tabbed parts carefully before pushing them home firmly. You may need to place a piece of scrap wood (or something like a strong coaster) on the top edge of the parts to push them home (but make sure you don’t push them over sideways and break the tabs). We would recommend assembling parts C (marked in yellow) first, followed by parts B (marked in green) and then parts A (marked in red).

The small tabbed parts (E) should be inserted after A, B and C. Again, place the back board on a firm surface and push the parts in firmly using a scrap piece of wood if necessary, making sure that they are all aligned vertically and the individual gaps for the drawers are all the same size.

If the tabs were particularly tight to assemble then glue may not be necessary. However, we would recommend that you apply a little wood glue or PVA glue to the back of each of the tabs to fix them permanently (and to the corners of the Calendar if necessary).

Because the Back Panel is slightly larger than the main body of the Calendar, it may cause it to lean forward slightly. The part labeled D in the first picture can be glued to the front-bottom edge of the Calendar to correct this lean if required.

After gluing it may be necessary to touch-up some areas of paint (for example around the outside edges) – now is the time to do this. Once the main part of your Calendar is completed it should look something like the image below :

There are probably many ways to make the drawers for the Advent Calendar but the best way we have found is by using Helmar 450 Glue or sticking each corner of each drawer together with short strips of double-sided tape. The same tape can then be used later to stick the paper onto the drawers.

To cover each drawer you should cut a strip of paper the same height as the drawer and long enough to wrap around three sides plus a few millimetres at each side of the front. Squares to fit the front of each drawer can be cut from the included Kaisercraft 12×12 papers or from other papers of a suitable colour. To cut the finger hole into the square, turn it over and use the drawer as a template to mark the shape of the finger hole before cutting it out with a small pair of scissors.