Advent Calendar 2012 - First Day and Notes

Here is the drawing for my Advent calendar's first day.  For the Sundays in Advent, I like to draw candles, lighting one more candle each Sunday like the traditional Advent wreath.  In my church, blue is the color for Advent, so my candles will be blue, except for a pink or rose colored candle for the third Sunday.

For 5 years now,  I've started my calendar with the words "We are leaving ordinary time..."  These words remind me that Advent is a special time of year, looking forward to Christmas and the birth of Jesus.  And it's a fact that "ordinary time"-  the long summer and fall church season after Pentecost - has now ended. 

This year on my calendar, I decided to try something different.  I'm planning to add some bits of paper to my Copic drawing and coloring.  I've had so much fun making cards (posted on my other blog, Mostly Markers - Cards) that I thought it would be interesting to experiment with colored card stock and die cuts as part of my Advent drawings.  

Today's drawing is about 2.5 x 1.75" in size.  Click on it for a better view.  It includes some Papertrey Ink card stock - blue stripes, green leaf print, and a solid yellow-orange.  The star inside the candle flame is a hand punch, and the green wreath shape and yellow candle base are oval die cuts.  I also added some dots and lines of Copic marker - YR27, YG63, and B45. The blue words and outlines are done with a cobalt Copic 0.3 multiliner.   The calendar is printed on Neenah solar white card stock.

For more information about the calendar and the template, as well as links to past years, scroll down or click here for my template post.  And I wish all of you a joyful holiday season!