Christmas Countdown Calendar Tutorial

Hello everyone!! I am happy to share another project made with Tim Holtz new holiday products today. It's a Christmas Countdown Calendar and it is easy to make. 

When I saw the Number Tokens, I knew I wanted to use them on a countdown project and I got the idea of making them all visible, instead of using one on each tag. My son is very much looking forward to Christmas and he is going to like removing a tag every day. One of the fun things with this calendar is that the tags will double up as journaling tags in my December Daily journal. I will share the actual journal in a little while. I used the 6 x 8 burlap panel as my base.

Let's start.

Start by colouring manila cardstock to use for the tags. Or, if you have tags, you can simply do the same thing on each tag. I smeared Cracked Pistachio, Antique Linen and Brushed Pewter Distress Stains on my craft sheet, misted with a little water and pressed the paper into the stain. Repeat on the other side.

When the paper is dry, die cut tags with the Tag & Bookplate die. I made 26 tags, because I like my December Daily journal to last until the 26th.

Stamp them on both sides with the wonderful ledger stamp from the School Desk set. I think I have used this stamp in all my December Daily albums.

Stamp each tag with a number using Potting Soil ink and the Tall Text set.

And now to my favourite part, sitting down surrounded by stamps and ink and just stamping away. Stamp the tags on both sides with different Christmas stamps. I was going for a green look so I used four shades of green Distress Ink.

 Ink the edges with Ground Espresso, my new favourite brown.

Paint the Holiday Letterpress letters with shades of green. It was a great idea to bring out a set of three holiday words in Letterpress letters, since you keep running out of certain letters if you use the general set.

Paint a wreath, snowflake and three tokens with Antique Linen. Wipe most off the paint from the tokens.

Add some green and red paint. I used a paint brush on the wreath. When the paint is almost dry, wipe some of it off.

Cut papers from the Yuletide Paper Stash, tear, sand and ink. I added some green ink to the background paper, so that it would coordinate nicely with the tags and Letterpress word. Glue to the panel with matte multi-medium.

Arrange the Christmas Numbers, and glue with matte multi-medium. This works great as a glue and also doesn't show if some glue seeps out.

Sand the Letterpress letters slightly and glue them to the panel. Add an Occasions Small Talk sticker.

I placed the wreath over the number '24', since that is the mainly family celebration day of Christmas in Sweden, and also when Santa comes.

To hang the tags, I used a hook that I found, which was just the right length. Since the burlap panels have a sturdy wood base, it was easy to screw the hook into the panel. I inked the hook with Pitch Black alcohol ink.

To hang the panel, screw two screw eyes into the top. Cut a piece of Boxwood Twine Garland and make a twist through each eye.

Screw a screw eye to the side of the panel and hang a Swivel Clasp from it. I forgot to hang the snowflake adornment before taking the photos, but it is there now. There is also a Heart Charm.

 Hang the other two tokens along the chain from jump rings.

Here you can see the stack of tags. I didn't add any reinforcer rings to the tags, which I normally do, to prevent the stack of becoming too thick.

 Here you can see the panel without the tags.

Just to give you a a look at some of the tags. Most of the sentiments were stamped with Potting Soil, the rest of the stamping was done with the four Distress Inks.

After stamping all the images and sentiment, I stamped a snowflake background stamp using Cracked Pistachio, over most of the tags, for extra texture.

 More tags. I love the new Scribbly Christmas set. The hat comes from Crazy Things.

Santa of course had to feature on the 24th. Since the tags are two sides, there is plenty of space for journaling on each tag.

Thank you so much for looking!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Burlap Panel BARE 6 x 8	Tim Holtz YULETIDE Paper Stash	Ranger 8.5 X 11 MANILA CARDSTOCK	Tim Holtz Sizzix Die TAG & BOOKPLATES	Tim Holtz HOLIDAY Letterpress
Tim Holtz NUMBER Tokens	Tim Holtz BOXWOOD Twine Garland	Tim Holtz IWREATHS Adornments	Tim Holtz CHRISTMAS Typed Tokens	Tim Holtz OCCASIONS Small Talk
Tim Holtz SNOWFLAKES Adornments	Tim Holtz SCREW EYES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology HEART CHARMS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology SWIVEL CLASPS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 75 JUMP RINGS
Tim Holtz SCRIBBLY CHRISTMAS	Tim Holtz MINI HANDWRITTEN HOLIDAYS	Tim Holtz MINI WEATHERED WINTER	Tim Holtz SCHOOL DESK Stampers Anonymous	Tim Holtz CRAZY THINGS
Tim Holtz CRAZY TALK	Stampers Anonymous CLASSICS #10	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 4	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 5	Tim Holtz WINTER SKETCHBOOK
Tim Holtz REINDEER FLIGHT	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 3	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 2	Tim Holtz STYLED WOODLANDS
Tim Holtz CHRISTMAS NOSTALGIA	Tim Holtz TALL TEXT	Tim Holtz Distress Ink GROUND ESPRESSO	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO
Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK FOREST MOSS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK MOWED LAWN	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival POTTING SOIL	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival FERN GREEN	Tim Holtz Distress Stain CRACKED PISTACHIO
Tim Holtz Distress Stain ANTIQUE LINEN	Tim Holtz Distress Stain BRUSHED PEWTER	Tim Holtz PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz MOWED LAWN	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BARN DOOR
Tim Holtz Distress Paint ANTIQUE LINEN	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink PITCH BLACK	Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Tim Holtz Distress Paint CRACKED PISTACHIO
Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT KNIFE	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE

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