Christmas Countdown Ornament – Days till Christmas

Do you LOVE counting the days till Christmas? AWESOME! I have a super fun DIY Christmas Countdown Ornament tutorial to share with you today! It’s so much fun to make!

Ready for the Christmas Countdown Ornament tutorial?

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DIY Christmas Countdown Ornament

Supplies:

• Wood plaque (2 3/4″ wide x 3 1/2″ high x 1/4″ thick)
• Wood pieces (2x 3 3/4″ long and 2x 3 1/2″ long. All 4 pieces are 1/2″ x 1/2″.)
• Dark paint or stain
• Beige paint
• Red vinyl (or red paint)
• Green vinyl (or green paint)
• Beige vinyl (or beige paint)
• Cork sheet
• Small screw hooks (2x)
• Closed eye screw hooks (2x)
• Jute twine
• Wood glue
• Paint brush
• Paper towel
• Graphite paper (optional)
• Small hole punch

Instructions:

Step 1: We started off by cutting a piece of wood to 2 3/4″ wide x 3 1/2″ high x 1/4″ thick.

We also cut 2 pieces 3 3/4″ long and 2 other pieces 3 1/2″ (all 4 pieces are 1/2″ x 1/2″).

Step 2: Time to paint and stain the pieces of wood.

We painted the small wood plaque in beige.

The other 4 pieces were stained using this staining technique.

Step 3: Using my vinyl cutting machine, I cut out the word Christmas out of red vinyl making sure it was the correct size to fit on the wood plaque (2″ wide).

If you do not have a vinyl cutter, you can paint the words onto your project. Print out the words, and use graphite paper to transferring the lettering onto your project. Then you can paint it. Check out this step by step for more details: How to transfer lettering onto wood.

Step 4: Using my machine again, I cut out the word Countdown (2″ wide) out of green vinyl.

Step 5: I applied the vinyl words I cut out onto the top portion of the wood plaque.

Step 6: I cut 7 pieces of 1 1/4″ high x by 7/8″ wide rectangles out of the sheet of cork using scissors.

Step 7: Cork is a naturally a nice color, but for this project I wanted to change the color to darker.

To make it darker, I applied the dark paint onto the cork and used paper towel to wipe it off immediately. It stained the cork a nice shade of brown.

I did this on both side of the pieces.

Step 8: Moving back to my vinyl cutting machine, I cut out numbers from beige vinyl about 7/8″ high.

I cut out 2x 0, 2x 1, 2x 2, 2x 3, and 1x 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Step 9: I applied the vinyl numbers to the bottom portion of the cork rectangles.

Now, to save on material, I applied two numbers per cork rectangle (front and back).  

Here are the number combinations I did: 0-1, 0-1, 2-3, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9.

Step 10: Using a small hole punch, I made holes at the top of each cork rectangle.

Step 11: I placed two cork rectangles on the plaque underneath the word Countdown. When I liked their location, I made a pencil mark in the hole to mark where I should screw in the hooks.

Step 12: I glued the 4 smalls pieces of wood around the wood plaque to frame it.

Step 13: Once the glue was dry, I screwed in the two hooks.

Step 14: Now to make the Christmas Countdown into an ornament, we need to add string to be able to hang it up.

I screwed in two closed eye screw hooks at the top of the frame. Then I attached a piece of jute twine.

Step 15: Add the cork numbered rectangles to make it an official Christmas Countdown Ornament.

Here it is:

Christmas Countdown Ornament

Doesn’t it look AWESOME?!

I just love it so much!! We are going to have a BLAST counting down to Christmas with it.

You do know how much I’m obsessed with Christmas Countdowns, right?!

Oh you don’t know… well goodness let me show you some of my countdowns! Ready?

DIY Christmas Countdowns

 Wall Mounted Advent Calendar

Outdoor Christmas Countdown Marquee Sign

Glass Mounted Christmas Countdown

Mini Christmas Countdown – Christmas Craft for Kids

And in case you were thinking I have a problem… Yes.. I.. Do!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWNS!

I sure hope I have inspired you to create your own Christmas Countdown Ornament! I just can’t wait to put ours in our tree. We are thinking of putting up our Christmas tree this weekend! YAY!

P.S. Did you notice that the Christmas Countdown Ornament is a replica of my Outdoor Christmas Countdown Marquee Sign?

If you are more into sewing projects, I also made a Fabric Advent Calendar!

Have a wonderful day!