There is ALWAYS something to look forward too. Things we are waiting for: A baby, a wedding, a birthday. Recently, my children and I counted down to Daddy coming home from deployment. Now we are counting down to Halloween. (We are also counting down to our Return to DisneyWorld–been saving for 3 years. We are leaving on Nov. 1) That would be a great idea for countdown blocks! But what I have to show you are my Countdown to Halloween Blocks! I used several pieces from the October Mix a Kit. Here are the main kits I used. This one I loved because it gave more more variety in my numbers.
I loved the Frightful word bits too.
This alpha reminds me of a fat squishy pumpkin.
I used almost every piece that Dream Big Designs created for the Mix A Kit. Here is a look at just the papers, but the super cool alpha that is glittered around the edges is worth checking out too.
Here is another alpha that my son loves and picked out for me to use.
These aren’t even all the goodies I used, you can find all the parts of the ScrapMatters October Mix A Kit here.
Let me show you my finished project.
Yes, these are the cutest little blocks. You maybe have seen them all over. Usually they are made of little wooden blocks. But mine are made out of 3 pieces of cardstock and some Glue Dots. Don’t get me wrong I love the wooden ones, and I think they would last longer. But if you are anything like me, even if you went through all the trouble to make the wooden kind you wouldn’t be able to find them next year, and would have to make them all over. I think if I were giving these as a fancy gift I would go the wooden route. But these have held up great to my 3 elementary kids so far, and since they were so easy I will want to make more next year anyway.
I designed my own template for this little project. And I will definitely tell you how I did it. I am not going to go in to full out detail, because when I upload thing that I make for my own use to share I always worry that in all my excitement that I have messed up something. So I have sent the idea to Krisi’s Kreations, and I think that she is going to fancy it up a bit and quality check it and all that jazz and have it in her store. (I am thinking Christmas countdown).
Let me go ahead and tell you how I did it for now. I use a regular printer at home, so I needed to be able to print on regular paper. To do that safely, I found the blocks could be 1.75 inches. This isn’t the way I made my template in the beginning but through trial and error this is what worked. You know it is one of those things that took me all day-but had I known then what I know now it would have been as simple as this. You need to create a 1.75 x 1.75 inch square in your program. I use Photoshop Elements 7, but it will be the same idea in any program. I recommend filling it with color. Then all you have to do is duplicate it five times. Then line them up like this. You can draw the flaps on afterward with a pencil. I have put them on the template to give you an idea-but you won’t see them after they are assembled.
You will need 2 square blocks. Then for the base you will need a rectangle block. This was the part that took me so long, but in hindsight it wasn’t hard. But boy did it elude me at first. Using the block template layered file, You just turn the middle squares into 1.75 x 3.5 inch rectangles! Leave everything else the same. My base looks different because it is rotated, but don’t let that confuse you! Just remember that you will see the squares too, so decorate them as well. Here are my flattened square blocks and rectangle base.
Your first block will have 0,1,2,6,7,8 (but you have to use a font that will let the 6 also be used for 9. Your second block will be 0,1,2,3,4,5. This will let you count down a full month. Or hey, you could make this a perpetual calendar too! I had so much fun with these little countdown blocks. I hope you will too! I am sure to be back with Christmas Countdowns. Here is one more picture. And thanks so much for looking! Tamara.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 10:01 am and is filed under Creative Team, Hybrid Scrapping, Mix-a-Kit, ScrapMatters, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 
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