Countdown to Christmas Calendar

This hol­i­day sea­son I’m all about get­ting projects done in a day. This year, I can’t afford the take a week to com­plete a project, you all know I’m very capa­ble of cre­at­ing a mole hill kin­da project into a moun­tain kin­da project. So I thought and thought of how I could cre­ate a “Count­down to Christ­mas Cal­en­dar” with­out it tak­ing me days to com­plete. I love count­ing down to Christ­mas just as much as a kid and thought I would share with you what and how I made mine. This project should take 3  hours tops from start to fin­ish includ­ing dry­ing time for the paints.

Prod­ucts Used: Maya Road Count­down Shad­ow­box, Adiron­dack Acrylic Paint Dab­ber Juniper & Metal­lic Gold, Cof­fee Archival Ink, Glue Stick, My Mind’s Eye ~ Joy­ous 6” x 6” Design­er Pack, Dia­mond Stick­les, 25 ~ 1.5” Sisal Trees (Hob­by Lob­by), Ranger Mul­ti Medi­um Mat­te, Clorox Bleach

Tools Need­ed: Paint­brush, Craft Mat, Scis­sors, Sand­ing Block, Blend­ing Tool & Foam

Paint the shad­ow box using Juniper acrylic paint, let dry. Ran­dom­ly ink ares of the shad­ow box using Cof­fee Archival Ink, Accent areas of the shad­ow box using Metal­lic Gold acrylic paint, let dry.

Cov­er chip­board squares using My Mind’s Eye ~ Joy­ous pat­terned paper, sand edges, ink edges using Cof­fee Archival Ink, accent edges with metal­lic gold paint, let dry. Using Dia­mond Stick­les accent the images on each chip­board square, let dry.

Bleach 25 — 1.5″ sisal trees in your sink with a water and Clorox bleach mix­ture. I fill my sink with water just deep enough so my trees are com­plete­ly cov­ered with water then pour in the Clorox while count­ing 1,001, 1,002, 1,003 and stop. Place your trees into the mix­ture for 30 min­utes or until bleached. Make sure you are super care­ful and you are in a well ven­ti­lat­ed area.

Once the trees are bleached, rinse with cold water and pat dry.

To cre­ate the num­bers for each tree I used Microsoft Word ~ Times New Roman Font ~ Font Size 12. I print­ed the num­bers using my laser print­er, cut out each one and attached each num­ber to the base of a bleached sisal tree using Ranger Mul­ti Medi­um Mat­te and let dry.

Using a strong liq­uid adhe­sive glue the inner shad­ow box divider into the shad­ow box, press firm­ly for good adhe­sion. Place a strong liq­uid adhe­sive in the cen­ter of each square and attach your altered chip­board squares. Now you just need to wait for Decem­ber 1st to add your sisal trees. I can hard­ly wait to start my count­down.

I think the milk glass bowl is per­fect for hold­ing all my sisal trees and goes well with the vin­tage themed pat­terned papers. If you want to add a lit­tle treat for kids each day I think rolling up a hol­i­day task and tying a tree to each one with bak­er’s twine would look real­ly cute. Here are a few of the fun things I did with my kids when they were lit­tle…

Make Christ­mas Cards for Your Friends

Bake & Dec­o­rate Christ­mas Cook­ies

Make Rein­deer Food & Sprin­kle in the Yard

Make Hot Choco­late & Don’t For­get the Marsh­mal­lows

Make Spiced Cider

Eat Can­dy Canes

Dec­o­rate a Gin­ger­bread House

Make S’Mores

Dri­ve Around Town Look­ing at Christ­mas Lights In Your PJ’s

It’s Snow­man Pan­cakes for Din­ner Night

Vis­it San­ta

Watch the Movie “A Christ­mas Sto­ry”

Write a Let­ter to San­ta

Ran­dom Act of Kind­ness

Donate To the Food Bank

Make Christ­mas Tree Cup­cakes

Sleep Under the Christ­mas Tree

Watch the Movie “The Grinch”

Have a Red & Green Din­ner

Roast Marsh­mal­lows

Pick a Name from the Angel Tree

Deliv­er Christ­mas Treats to the Neigh­bors

Watch the Movie “It’s A Won­der­ful Life”

Make Your Own Wrap­ping Paper

Enjoy Christ­mas Day with Fam­i­ly and Friends

If you cre­ate a Count­down to Christ­mas Cal­en­dar please share it with me via my Face­book page. I’d love to see it.

Related Posts:

• Altered Cab­i­net Card
• Noel…
• So This Is Love ~ Tag
• Fam­i­ly is Every­thing
• Gen­tle­men’s Orna­ment or Gift Tag