Countdown to Christmas–MFT October DT Creative Challenge

The MFT Design Team Creative Challenge is a monthly feature where we are challenged to explore our creative side using a specific theme, product, or technique. This month, Countdown to Christmas!  Look forward to an assortment of creations from today's participating designers as we explore creative ways to use out MFT products in a Christmas countdown project.  Be sure to check out the MFT Blog for a list of all the designers who have a project to share with you today.

This was SUCH a fun challenge! I’m always looking for new décor items, especially for Christmas, and this was perfect! I’d been toying with the idea of doing an advent calendar but with no little kiddos it seemed a little overkill for my house. I wanted something that would be interactive, though, so I came up with this idea—a chalkboard for the countdown! I love it! I especially love the retro look of what I ended up with. When I started I only had a general idea of what I was going to do and it evolved from there. Here’s how I went about it:

I started with this heavy chipboard picture frame and painted the whole thing a nice cobalt blue. Since this will hang in my dining room, I kept the colors I use in that room in mind along the way. After that, I used my MPD Stargaze stencil and stenciled on some molding paste. After I dried the molding paste, I sponged in some Sweet Tooth pigment ink to simulate far-away stars.




Then I used my Snow Drifts Die-namics and my Tree Lines Die-namics and created my snow layers. Since I was working with an area larger than a card base, I had to finagle these dies to cut across the whole thing. I did a lot of measuring and ended up using both Snow Drift Die-namics dies at the same time to go all across the paper. Same thing with my Tree Lines Die-namics. I cut them both bigger than I knew I’d need and then trimmed to fit the frame once I got them lined up together.




After I got my trees and snow adhered to the frame—the top layer is popped up on foam, I went about the sentiment. I cut my letters from By the Letters Die-namics and popped them up on foam, too. The apostrophe in front of the “‘til” is the top part of the “i” adhered at a slant.




And, finally, I used the darling snowman from Snow Globe Die-namics and popped him up on foam, too. He fits in perfectly with the overall retro look of this piece. The actual “chalkboard” is chalkboard card stock and actually works pretty well with real chalk. For long term use, I might buy a small chalkboard and have my DH cut it to fit the frame opening, but this works for now.



To finish it off, I hot glued some red jute cord to a piece of chalk and then hot glue the other end to the back of the frame. It’ll just hang around, waiting to be used every day.

And that’s it! Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you will get inspired to make your own Christmas countdown project!

 

Wild Cherry Card Stock	Kraft Card Stock	Jellybean Green Card Stock	Sweet Tooth Card Stock
Black Licorice Card Stock	Gumdrop Green Card Stock	Orange Fizz Card Stock	Pigment Ink Pad Sweet Tooth
Die-namics By the Letters Die-namics By the Letters	Die-namics Tree Lines	Die-namics Snow Drifts	Die-namics Snow Globe
Stencil MPD Stargaze

InLinkz.com

~Supplies~
Stamps: None
Paper: Sweet Tooth card stock, Kraft card stock, Gumdrop Green card stock, Jellybean Green card stock, Wild Cherry card stock, Orange Fizz card stock, Black Licorice card stock (MFT)[ chalkboard card stock
Ink: Sweet Tooth pigment ink (MFT); Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger)
Accessories/tools: Vagabond; Snow Drifts Die-namics, Tree Lines Die-namics, Snow Globe Die-namics, By the Letters Die-namics, MPD Stargaze stencil (MFT); embossing paste, hot glue/gun, ScorTape, foam tape, craft paint