Tiger Stores Christmas Blogger Event - Pakkekalendar Making!
Woo hoo! December is nearly upon us, and the first day of this glorious month means one thing... ADVENT CALENDARS! I am not in the least bit ashamed to admit that I am fully grown adult person who has not gone a single year of my life (with the exception of the very early years) without having an advent calendar. I'll admit, they are starting to get a bit samey, so the rise in beauty advent calendars has brightened my world a bit. 2015 will forever be known as the year that the awesome Tiger Stores invited me to a blogger event and introduced me to pakkekalendars. Now advent will never be the same. Despite sitting outdoors in Spitalfields Market, this was a really fun event, with containers of iced gems and pretzel chips fuelling our breathtaking creativity.
Lovely Tiger PR lady, Elle (above), talked us through what the heck a pakkekalendar is (a Danish version of an advent calendar on which twenty-four gifts are hung from a central frame or holder), and how we might want to make one from the exciting range of Christmas ribbon, gift tags, and decorations on sale in Tiger stores (below). Each assembled blogger was given a bag filled with twenty four individually wrapped gifts for our pakkekalendar, and it has taken a huge amount of willpower for me to not rip them all open - I love Tiger's fun products so much!
Everyone got straight down to it. The table was an insane mess (in the best possible way), filled with crafting materials, Tiger Christmas goodies, and delicious Lola's cupcakes.
I've said it before, I'm not the craftiest of people - I just enjoy being in a group crafting situation and having a legitimate reason to use glue and glitter. I had no idea what to do, and just started wrapping holly round my calendar holder. I spent a good twenty minutes wondering how to attach my presents to it (though mostly I was chatting and eating pretzel chips), and then finally hit upon a staggeringly brilliant idea.
I would just hang mini brown paper bags with three gifts in each one! Why not? They're all gift wrapped, it's not like opening an advent calendar door and seeing what's inside. This was perfect, not least because it saved me having to do any actual work or having an iota of creativity.
Others managed to make much more authentic looking pakkekalendars. How did Hannah (below) manage to whip up something so professional looking? Oh, that's because she's some kinda craft WIZARD.
Jasmin found a novel use for her pakkekalendar holder, and this is probably the most goddam awesome homemade crown of ALL time.
Huge thanks to Tiger Stores for the introducing me to the wonder of pakkekalendars, and for all my exciting gifts - I cannot wait for December! Shoutout to the little hand warmer (below) that helped me warm up, these are so cute - you just pop the little disc inside and they heat up. Perfect for outdoor events and general winter chills, and all for just £1 at Tiger!