Christmas is my favorite holiday, BY FAR! Every year I start to get really excited as the time to decorate draws closer. In my home we always decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year I stumbled across the cutest Christmas countdown project I’ve seen. And so easy! I created the entire project, start to finish (including drying time) in under 2 hours. Love that!
And I so love this!
I saw it over at Eighteen 25 where they are blogging about advent countdown calendars all week! It was so adorable I knew I had to make my own!
I bought a clipboard at Michaels. It was so easy to take the clip off which allowed me to cover the entire base. But I think that the original one looks cute too even though the paper only goes up to the clip.
I cut the paper to size, rounded the corners (with my corner rounding punch), and used a hole punch on the paper for the screw holes.
I’ve never used Mod Podge so I did a bit of google research before starting. I saw several recommendations to spritz the back of the paper with water to keep it from getting wrinkles or bubbles. So that is what I did. Lightly sprayed the back of the paper with water, then spread a medium layer of Mod Podge on the clipboard only. Then I lined up the paper on the clipboard and used my fingers to spread it as flat as I could.
I allowed the clipboard to dry for 20 minutes before coating the top with a sealer coat of Mod Podge.
I printed the title at a font size of 50 in a text box sized 2.75 by 4.75. I used the free font Elise from KevinandAmanda.com. I added some sparkly brads and gradient jewels just for fun. FYI, I did Mod Podge the mat onto the clipboard. When I tried to Mod Podge the title, the ink smeared everywhere (even though it had been drying for 30+ min). I had to pull off the white paper, reprint, and glue it down again. This time I didn’t Mod Podge the top of the title. :)
I’ve been dying for the chance to use these adorable svgs from SVGcuts.com. This is the reindeer from their Christmas Cuddly Friends collection. SO CUTE! I love using SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) with my Cricut. Who needs cartridges when you can get svgs as adorable as this?!? I pieced that reindeer together and then Mod Podged it to the Clipboard. Once it dried for 20 min I coated the top with Mod Podge as well to seal it. After it had dried I added a gradient gem to his nose. Love it!!
I printed the numbers in the font Clingy (also from KevinandAmanda.com) at size 230. I used 8.5×11 sheets of cardstock, put the page in landscape mode and added two columns. I made the right and left margins as tiny as they would go then centered my text. That way I could just cut the page down the middle. I did end up cutting 1 in off the top to leave more room for my title and reindeer. I used my corner punch to round the bottom corners as well. If you’d like to download my PDF file here it is Advent Clipboard Countdown.
For a bit of color I took a red ink pad and ran it along the edge of each number card.
On the 10 card I added a cute little Mrs. Claus from the same collection as the reindeer.
On the 1 I added Santa, from the Christmas Cuddly Friends collection as well. They are all so cute!!
To top it all off I tied a bit of ribbon to the top of the clipboard.
And here is my final product. I can’t wait until Dec 1st when I can put it out! I am so in love with this Advent Countdown Calendar!
Try one out! If you do leave me a comment with a link! I’d love to see yours!
20 Comments
How cute – that little reindeer is awesome!
Thanks! I got some of my Mod Podge tips and tricks from your site Mod Podge Rocks!
It was a great help!
This is really cute-great lift!
love your version! awesome die cuts!
love all your pictures on your blog, came across from picture holidays.
this turned out so cute!! love the little elements you added! thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
jen
love your version! awesome die cuts!
How cute – that little reindeer is awesome!
Hi.. I know i’m a year late reading your post, but for some reason I am unable to see your pictures. I LOVE this idea and I LOVE your step by step process. Do you have the photos listed somewhere else? Thanks so much!
Mary that is so strange! Can you see pictures on other posts? I just recently moved my blog from scraplifters.blogspot.com over to scrapinspired.com and I’m wondering if something about the redirect is what’s making the pictures not work. If you can let me know whether or not it is only this post or all posts where you can’t see the pictures that would help me out. But I will post the photos on flikr right now so that you can see them. Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/60675357@N06/sets/72157627784289467/
Hope that helps!
Monica
Thank You! Question, how did you get the edge of your count down pages red?
I inked them. Using a stamp pad or a chalk cat’s eye in the color you want, just run the pad along the edge of the page. I only inked the sides and bottom, not the top. You could also run a marker along the edge. Hold the marker up and down and drag the edge of the paper along the side of the marker tip. Hope that helps!
I was trying to download the number file and it said I didn’t have permission. Is there any way to fix this? Thank you!!
It should now be fixed so that when you click the link it opens up a PDF that you can save to your computer. Thanks for letting me know about the broken link!!
Thank you!!! You rock!
Nope, I spoke too soon. It didn’t work.
The PDF file now works! Thank you!!
Yay! Glad it worked! If you post pics of your project somewhere leave a link. I’d love to see what you come up with!
Awesome idea. Thanks for the instructions and downloadable file! But, I have one question. What size clipboard did you use?
I’m so glad you like it Krista! I used a regular size clipboard (made to hold 8.5×11 paper). Hope that helps!
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[...] to take up a good percentage of the space. I think mine could be a bit bigger. One blogger, who did her own version of this clipboard, suggested using the font Clingy (also from KevinandAmanda.com) at size 230. She used a 8.5×11 [...]
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