Trick or Treat Halloween Calendar by Cheryl Becker

I loved making the Advent calendar for Christmas and knew there had to be a way to make it for Halloween. So, after studying the file a bit, I saw a way to do it. Not hard at all, just takes time. Hope you like it as much as I do and try it yourself!

SVG Collections Used

Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit
Salazar’s Scary Squares SVG Collection
Spooky Silhouette’s SVG Collection
Hazel’s Wicked Witch Crafts SVG Collection
Halloween SVG Collection
Basic Shapes Library

Supplies Used

• Cardstock
• Designer Papers
• Adhesive of your choosing
• Hot glue gun
• Twine
• Colored flat back pearls
• Wire
• Ribbon
• Poster board
• Scor Tape

Dimensions

Here are the exact shapes, sizes and colors I used. Size to dimensions shown below with "Keep Proportions" checked in the Shape Properties window, unless otherwise noted.

Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit
(Cut 2, see details in instructions)	11.0 W	Black
Salazar's Scary Squares SVG Collection
ghosts.svg (break apart, see instructions)	9.375 W	White
ghosts.svg (break apart, see instructions)	9.375 W	White
ghosts.svg (break apart, see instructions)	9.375 W	White
bat.svg ( cut 6)	2.066 W	Black
Spooky Silhouette's SVG Collection
owl_square.svg (cut 2)	2.75 W	Black
fence.svg (weld rect. and small oval to bottom,	4.987 W x 2.570	Black
see note for instructions, uncheck "Keep Prop-
ortions")
Hazel's Wicked Witch Crafts SVG Collection
Jack 'O Lanterns
1_top.svg	1.75 W	Designer Paper
1_bottom.svg	1.75 W	Black
2_top.svg	1.35 W	Designer Paper
2_bottom.svg	1.35 W	Black
Halloween SVG Collection
tree.svg	3.5 W	Black
Basic Shapes Library
rectangle.svg (weld to fence.svg)	4.563 W x 1.219 H	Black
oval_horizontal.svg (weld to fence.svg)	2.081W x 1.042	Black
circle.svg (for the moon, see note)	2.0 W	Yellow
Font - Rocky AOE (free to download - google it)
B	1.087	Designer Paper
B (shadow blackout, 1.0)	1.087	Black
O (cut 2)	1.202	Designer Paper
O (cut 2, shadow blackout, 1.0)	1.202	Black

Instructions

1. Cut all components of the Classic Christmas Advent Calendar
2. Cut Calendar front, back, and edge pieces again.
3. Cut doors 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25 a second time. It will take a bit of your time to figure out what decorative pieces are used on the door fronts, but it is worth the time!
4. Assemble the advent calendar, watch Mary’s tutorial for great instructions!
5. Assemble the second calendar using only the door numbers listed above
6. Trim away the excess of the front and back. You should be left with a rectangle of only those six doors. See my photos.
7. Trim the second set of the edge pieces to the same size as the piece with only the six doors. Attach edges just like for the main calendar piece. This will be hot glued to the right edge of the main calendar.
8. Do all the decorating of the little doors. Add whatever bling you’d like. I used some twine and flat back colored pearls.
9. When both pieces are done being decorated, hot glue the smaller piece to the main calendar piece, on the right edge. Look at my photos, it may help you.
10. Cut cardstock to fill in the area of the upper right corner and adhere with tape runner to the calendar back. This area will be decorated with the tree, pumpkins, fence, bats and owl.
11. For making the fence…import the fence and size to dimensions in the chart. Import rectangle and oval from basic shapes library. Weld these to the fence to fill in and have a nice straight bottom. Score just below the bottom line of the fence and bend backwards. Glue this to the top edge of the smaller calendar piece. Look at my photo and it will all make sense.
12. Cut away the frame part around the owl, leaving only the owl on a branch. Glue one straight down and pop dot the other one on top for dimension
13. Glue the tree in place.
14. Sandwich wire between two bats. Do two of these. Coil wire if desired. Place the other bats where you would like. I used my hot glue gun to adhere these.
15. For the moon, cut your circle and ink the edges to shade it and make it look more real. Adhere on the back side
16. Cut your letters for the word ”boo” I used a little strip of black cardstock to go behind the letter and the edge of the calendar to adhere. This way all the entire letter shows.
17. Measure your finished piece and cut poster board just a tad smaller. Adhere to the back of your piece with adhesive of your choice. This gives a clean, finished back.
18. To get the ghosts, import the the ghosts.svg from Salazar’s Scary Squares at 9.375. Break it apart and start to delete pieces. First the background, then the large piece that is left after that. All that will remain is some tiny scrap pieces and 3 ghosts. Get rid of all but the three ghosts and then group all the bits of the ghosts and you are good to go. You can then size them as big or small as you want.

Design Tips

1. Watch the video Mary has done of the calendar. This is a must!
2. Refer back to the pictures of mine, and a lot of the steps will make more sense.
3. TAKE YOUR TIME
4. Limit colors and patterns to about 3-4. Too much and it gets busy.
5. Inking and embossing adds a lot. Take the time to do it.
6. I used Scor Tape to put my calendar boxes on. Me and glue don’t get along too well, lol. Worked great for me.
7. It was also easier to open the little door, then you can see right where the little boxes should go. Easy to see your edges.
8. Go slowly, this isn’t something you will do in one sitting. It will take a couple days, maybe. But if you take your time and do it right, you can use this for many years if you store it nicely.

I seem to get myself into a bigger project than I thought it would be starting out. This is one of those! But I knew it could be done, and I did it. I am happy with the outcome and I hope you will think about investing the time it will take to make this. You will be the talk of the town! If you give it away, you will shock the receiver, if you keep it for yourself, you will be very proud of a great project! I hope you give it a go.