25 Songs for Christmas - A Unique Advent Gift

Video of the Music Box playing "Deck the Halls" Paper Tape

Music Tape Bundled in Numbered Sleeves for Advent

This is an amazing gift to give for Christmas or Advent. The 25 songs plus Auld Lang Syne were created on the website https://musicboxmaniacs.com There are links on that website to purchase the 15 note hand crank music box on Amazon.  The wooden music box without any paper tape or hole punch is about $15. I chose the wooden box which included paper tape and a hole punch.  The paper tape and hole punch are not necessary to buy since the Silhouette will be cutting the paper.  I bought the paper tape and hole punch to calculate the size of the holes necessary and the width of the paper. The size of the hole is 0.1 in wide and the width of the paper is 1.616 in. Please note, when purchasing the music box, it must be the 15 note music box for the paper tapes that I have created to work.

The https://musicboxmaniacs.com website has a create feature where you can make your own paper tape music.  I will be explain how to make the paper tape using your Silhouette software in my next blog entry.  https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2019/11/how-to-make-paper-tape-music-for-15.html

Included in my file is a pattern to make a sleeve for the paper tape and 25 numbers if you want to give this as an advent gift.  I think it would look really pretty with the 25 numbered sleeves wrapped with a ribbon. The sleeves are folded around the music tape.  There are no crease lines.  I used a scoring board to make the creases to fold the sleeves. I plan to make five of them to give as gifts. I used 65 lb./176 gsm cardstock to make the sleeves.

I used 110 lb. /300 gsm cardstock to make the paper tape music. I purchased the white cardstock at Michaels.  The music box needs the thicker paper so that the gears can grab onto the paper.  I recommend using a blade depth of 5 and cutting in 2 passes. I do recommend a new blade and cutting mat.  If the holes are not cut accurately, the music will not play correctly or not at all. I discovered this problem with my automatic blade on my Cameo 3.  The holes were not perfectly round because of a dull/misaligned blade.

I used a Silhouette sketch pan to write the name of each song on the paper tape and an arrow to show the direction in which to feed the music.

Here is the PDF. Look at the PDF to see the 25 songs included in my file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/113wbvLL-rokluXAQ4RK1222Om-6fHVCi/view?usp=sharing 

Here is the .Studio file. There are two versions of the sleeve to hold the music. One version is for 12 x 12 paper and the other for 8 1/2 x 11 paper in this file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1byqxa4bRaaKiJUXQo8XvWKwci8ARTovp/view?usp=sharing

The songs that I have included are snippets of popular Christmas tunes. I think they all sound great.  If there are any suggestions to change a tune, please leave a message and I will try to oblige.  Please be kind...I am just a hobbyist and not a professional.

I have now made 30 more songs for the 15 note music box.https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/05/30-songs-for-15-note-music-box.html