A Modern Traditional Christmas Countdown Calendar

by Jen @ RamblingRenovators - 6:00 AM

Cricut vinyl Christmas craft, modern traditional gold Christmas countdown calendar

And the holiday DIYs have begun! I'm so excited to share this idea with you today as part of the Seasonal Simplicity Christmas Series hosted by Krista at The Happy Housie. I'm joining 30+ other fabulous bloggers to share inspiration for the holiday season. I hope you like my modern & traditional Christmas countdown calendar!

I've always loved counting down the days to Christmas. I've made an Advent calendar for Chloe every year (you can see our different versions here, here, here and here) and while I'll still be doing that with little bags and gifts/activities, I thought it might be fun to have a chic, grown-up calendar. This one is my favourite mix - a bit modern & shiny, yet traditional and nostalgic too.

The act of just marking down the days is magical. It makes you pay attention to the passing moments, and you're more intentional with how you enjoy the season. I haven't used my Cricut machine in a while so was excited to bust it out for this project.

Note that affiliate links have been used in this post.

Supplies:

Cricut Adhesive Foil Stainless, Gold

Vinyl transfer paper

Fabric

Wooden frame mount (you can also search Pinterest for DIY versions like this one)

Garland twist ties

Stick pin

Eraser

Instructions:

1. Print out the graphic files: Merry & bright header, 1-14, 15-24. You can resize the circles to whatever size you want in Cricut, to a maximum diameter of 2.25". This allows you to print four numbers across on the full 12" width of vinyl.

2. Find a piece of fabric for the banner. I used a scrap fabric I already had but canvas or any plain fabric would work well. I cut my banner to 13" wide x 27" long and sewed 1/2" seams all around for a finished size of 12" x 26"

Side note: my tackle box sewing kit still works like a charm!

3. Remove all the unnecessary parts of the vinyl

4. Attach the vinyl transfer paper to the front of the decals. Transfer the decals to the fabric.

5. Hang the fabric using the frame mount.

6. Create a miniature wreath using the garland twist tie. Attach the wreath to the calendar using a stick pin and piece of eraser on the back.

What do you think? The laurel wreath motif and gold are favourites these days so expect to see more of the same in my holiday decorating. I have the calendar hanging in our kitchen and it brings a nice bit of shine to the space. We're still a month early but Chloe has already enjoyed moving that sweet little wreath every day.

Now here's lots more holiday crafts to browse. Please click on over and see what these creative ladies have been up to! Happy crafting!