COUNTDOWN BLOCKS {Craft}

Remember these?

I picked them up at Goodwill for like $1 or $2.  I turned them into these countdown blocks.

I just painted the edges white with some acrylic craft paint.  Then, I used my Silhouette to cut squares of paper to fit on the sides.  I have two blocks with different holidays/events on them.  I used themed paper to go with the holidays.  On the other blocks I used black and white papers.  I saw this idea over on How Does She a long time ago.  I thought it was so cute.  But I wanted it to be for more than just one holiday. 

I used vinyl for the numbers and words.  On one block I have the numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5 and on the other 0,1,2,6,7,8.  You use the 6 as a 9 also.  On the Days ‘til (which is just realized I have the apostrophe in the wrong place!) I also did Weeks ‘Til and Hours ‘Til.  I did all the big holidays, plus summer, birthday, fun, vacation.  The kids are enjoying using them and I think they turned out pretty cute.

To adhere the paper, apply a thin layer of modpodge to the block and add your paper.  use a credit card edge to burnish it down well.  Repeat with all the sides, allowing the ModPodge to dry.  Once it is dry you can then apply a thin layer to the outside of the paper.  This keeps it from bubbling.  Once all the mod podge is dry, you can use a clear spray paint to coat the outsides.  You must do that with modpodge or it will stick to things even once it is dry.  You can then apply your vinyl.  Alternately, you could cut letters and numbers from paper with punches or die cutters or free hand.  You could also use stickers.  If you do paper, attach them with a glue stick or a little ModPodge before you coat the face of the paper with ModPodge. 

For those in Vegas I saw blocks like these at Marshall’s for like $4 and it was a longer word for maybe 6 or 7 or 8 blocks.  They had a few of them.