Last year, I made a countdown calendar and posted it on here, but I'll be honest. I was not a huge fan of it. Mainly because there were so many little parts, and the kids had to go rifling through the little tin to find the right number. Just a big ol' pain in the booty.
So this year, I wanted to make something different. My first thought was to make those little block calendars like this, but I didn't want to pay for the blocks. I mean, my husband has a TON of planks in the garage just gathering dust, so I went about trying to figure out how I could use them.
First thing I found was a piece of 2x4 in the garage that I think my husband used to practice routing on. Routing? Routering? Whatever...making the edges of something rounded. (The rounded edges are totally not necessary, and actually kind of made it harder to line up the decals. So, stick with a regular old 2x4 :D) I measured the length out to 10" and clamped the plank to a saw horse. I absolutely refuse to use our table saw (even though I know it'll make the cut edges smoother) because it freaks me the junk out. I will use power tools to a point, but I really don't think I should be trusted with something like that ;P. I used our jigsaw and cut the length I wanted.
After cutting, I sanded down the edges with a sanding block, drilled a hole in the middle of the side toward one end big enough for a piece of chalk, and spray painted it all with black satin paint - mainly just because that's what I had in the garage already.
Now, how to decorate it.
I knew from years past that 1.) I suck at tracing things, and 2.) I suck even more at cutting detailed things out with an exacto knife. Enter my fairly new Silhouette Cameo. *Cue angels singing* I mean seriously, this thing CHANGED MY CRAFTING LIFE. Best investment I ever could have made. I'm not being endorsed to say that, but I wouldn't be opposed to it if Silhouette WANTED to ;P
A-hem. Back to the project at hand.
I *might* have gone a little vinyl crazy and ordered all the things...so I already had some chalkboard vinyl and Oracal 651 (the permanent one) in glossy white. I found a shape I liked in PicMonkey for the number sections, (also worth your money to get Premium if you design a lot of things), got them to the right size and traced them. Once they were cut, I primed them with chalk, then wiped them clean. Not sure that was a necessary step or not, but I figured, no harm in doing it.
The wording took a bit longer, to get it all the way I wanted it, but fortunately for you, you don't have to!! Here's a FREE .studio3 cut file for you :D
Once it was cut and weeded (the process of taking out the bits you DON'T want on your final design), I used clear transfer tape so I could see where I was placing them, and stuck 'em on there. SUPER easy.
Easy peasy!
If y'all make one, I'd LOVE to see what you come up with!!
These files are for personal use only, please. Don't have a silhouette? You can head on over to my Etsy shop and can purchase the decal there. Don't see it in the shop? Send me a PM and we'll get it sorted :D
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