Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Countdown to Christmas


Made this cute project the other day and wanted to share it.  The graphics are all from Pretty Little Studios.  I finally took advantage of having my husband work at a lumberyard and had him cut me a square board from a 2 x 8 (which end up being more like 7").  The background is the gift tag which is a free download.  I opened it up in gimp and added the title.  The red/white polk a dot square is also a free download.  I just layered that onto my image.  You can order the Santa cards and have them shipped to you or purchase them as a download.  I opted to do the latter and printed them out 3" x 4".  Initially I painted the wood black but didn't like it so I repainted it red after it was all done but you can still see some black showing through.  I'll probably just end up making a new one or try touching up the paint again.

Here are the basic instructions:
  1. Cut a 2x8 board into a square and sand the edges smooth.
  2. Design your elements and print them out onto cardstock.
  3. Paint the board red and sand the edges if you'd like a distressed look.
  4. Apply mod podge to the front of the board and adhere the background paper to it.  Allow it to dry and then apply another layer of mod podge on top to seal it.
  5. Glue a tiny clothespin on to hold the countdown playing cards.
  6. Cut out all the cards and you're ready to go!

I'm thinking about adding an envelope onto the back of the board to hold the extra cards while not in use.

Since I don't have a great printer at home, I use the local print shop.  I find it best to have my files in a pdf for easy printing.  After doing whatever design work I need to do with gimp, I create a document in open office and then save it as a pdf.  Probably going about this the long way but that's what my process is.

I can't wait to decorate for Christmas so I can have this on display!

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