I started decoration the basic structure by cutting 2mm strips of XPS foam, which was then flag stoned with a pencil and got a final structure with a tin foil ball.
I cut 3mm high and 3mm deep steps into a 4cm wide block, which I then cut in half to get my two 2cm wide stairs I would need.
Of course I did not entirely think through what I was doing, and did not take into account the height of the wooden floor...
Luckily, I had not thrown away the off-cuts from creating the stairs (never throw you off-cuts into the thrash too soon, kids), and just glued the last two off-cuts (6mm and 3mm depth) on top of the stairs to get two additional steps, covering the height of the wooden floor.
Time to glue in the parts, behind the stairs I just glued in a massiv block of foam. On the right side, I will cut the foam flush when everthing is dry.
Using one of the advent calendar doors as reference, I started to cut the upper door frames. The round part I cut freehand (which clearly shows). The circles I drew free-hand with a pencil, made an incision with a scalpel, and pressed the foam around the circle down with a pencil, so the circles remained raised above the rest.
After I glued the other stairs and floors in place, I found another detail I hadn't though completely through. I had alternated the steps to the front/back for more visual interest. When gluing in the door frames, I noticed I would not be able to place all the doors from the calendar, as with the stairs placed at the back, the openening in the floor would be right in front of a door... So less doors to manufacture.
When I started to clean up the desk I held the edge of the XPS sheet, which has an L-form to be able to slot sheets into each other. It looked about right... and it really fit at the bottom!
Never throw your off-cuts away too, early
