It's getting so close! Christmas is less than a month away. It seems surreal...doesn't it? Well, now that the official countdown of 25 days is about to be upon us, I'm sharing how I made this year's Christmas countdown calendar. Yes...I say "this year's" because for some reason, I make a different countdown every year. I really don't know why. I have about 6 so far in my house...most of which are still in boxes. I do take out my faves and have them out every year. This one is for sure going to be one of them!
This year, I decided to make a pretty simple countdown made from stuff you can easily get from the craft store. I got this board from Hobby Lobby for about $11. It's pretty good size, 24" by 18". You can find it in their wood cutout aisle. They have lots of different signs like this just ready to go! Saves you time from not having to make it on your own :) Bonus!
I didn't like the darker color of the shiplap inset, so I used some white latex paint and dried brush over it.
Using my Silhouette, I then cut out the numbers 1-25 in a size I thought would work. I did this on scrap paper as to not waste my precious vinyl :) I only had scrap pieces of vinyl left so I needed every piece I could get! I cut these out at a little over 1". I then placed them on the sign. I played around with spacing and where I wanted each number to go until I got it perfect. I then took a picture to remember :)
If you are using just normal latex paint on a sign you built yourself, you can easily place painters tape right down the middle to the two edges to create a tree or triangle. This wood from the sign is so so soft that when I placed the tape right on it, and peeled it off, it took half the paint with it.... so, I had to figure that out. I ended up using a cereal box, and cutting out the shape I needed.
I then cut out a 1" strip of scrap paper to use as my spacer. I cut out all the numbers on black vinyl. Using the red numbers again, I figured out where the best placement was for them. The red spacer was used along the bottom groove of each "row". This helped with placing the numbers in the middle of each little shiplap section.
This is how it ended up looking with all the numbers down.
I then got tiny nails and hammered them into the groove above each number. To make this work easier, I placed the sign on top of a 2x4 cut at about 20". I then moved the 2x4 down each row, and hammered in the nail. If you do the project, you'll see why this makes such a difference.
I found these little wreaths at Hobby Lobby also. I think they are supposed to be used as napkins rings... I don't really know. But, they worked perfectly for this!
I then added a star at the top to finish off the tree. This star is a cutout from Michaels and painted red.
You can either start the countdown at the top, or use it to count the actual days.
I love the size of this and how easy it is for my kids to use. Plus, it came in under $15 to make the thing and less than an hour. Not too bad! I'm excited to start using it come December 1st!
As for my other favorites...I still have my favorite advent calendar clock that we use yearly that tells you things to do each day. Here's the tutorial on how to make it:
Here's another favorite Christmas Advent Countdown. This is fun because you just flip over the days and there's stuff to do on the other side. Tutorial here:
My kids look forward to doing these every year... new ones and old ones! Soon, we will have one for every room in our house, haha :) That might start to get a little much. What's your favorite way to countdown to Christmas?
Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving!
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