Countdown Blocks Tutorial

I have to laugh because I have become a little obsessed with blogs lately . . . craft blogs.

The Relief Society asked the Primary Presidency to give them an idea for Enrichment (at the time it was still Enrichment!), and we all went on the search and I found the Countdown Blocks idea here. It was EASY and it was CHEAP . . . perfect!

We should have had the sample made a few weeks ago . . . but life in Primary is VERY busy this time of year! (Not to mention that I am redoing my kitchen cupboards from another craft blog . . . I'm almost done and ready to post a picture of them!) So we printed out the idea (after getting permission of course), and showed everyone what it would "kind of" look like. I can't wait to bring the REAL sample today and show everyone . . . we are all in LOVE with how they turned out!

You can't countdown from a really high number, but you CAN do an entire month. (I just wanted to show a few more patterns of paper . . . ugh it is so cute!)






My friend Karen found the blocks online at http://www.craftparts.com/ and we ordered them a few weeks ago. They are backordered now . . . but I called and ordered another case because we all loved them so much that we want to make a bunch! We used the 2 inch fir blocks.


You need 12 different patterns of paper cut just smaller than 2 inches (like 1 7/8").


Paint the blocks and base whatever color you think matches your papers the best.


Then we used vinyl (much cheaper from a sign shop . . . although shop around, one wanted to charge me $65 and another it was $25), to cut the numbers out with my Cricut using the Alphalicious cartridge at 1 1/2".


We put the numbers on the papers before we used Mod Podge to glue them on the blocks. In order to have the right number combinations you will put the numbers 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8 on one block and 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the other block.


(To Mod Podge you put a thin coat on both the block and the back of the paper and then stick it together, wiping off the excess glue)


Once it is dry you can sand the edges of the blocks and paper to age it a bit. We also used Tim Holtz "vintage photo" Distress Ink to antique it a bit. Once that was dry we put another coat of Mod Podge over the blocks to protect them from dirty fingers. We also did the bottom block so that it had the same texture.


The metal bracket was at our local dollar store . . . it WAS purple, but we spray painted it black and then put some red mini brads on it (we had to clip the ends so they didn't show).


We printed out the "days until Christmas" on some cardstock and Mod Podged it to the big block and then used the glue gun to glue the bracket to the block. (if using an ink jet printer you don't want to Mod Podge over the days until Christmas paper or else it will bleed)


And . . . voila!