Halloween Countdown Calendar

Hello, fellow crafters. I just noticed that it has been over a month since my last post! Bad, blogger. Bad! To try to make up for it, I have a very fun project I've been working on... a Halloween countdown calendar! I had so much fun making them for Christmas, that I had to do one for Halloween also.

I started with a framed dry erase calendar that was also magnetic. I picked it up at a yard sale for 75 cents, but didn't have a good place to use it as a calendar. So it got a makeover. I covered the background with Halloween paper, and added glittery foam words, ribbon and rick-rack. I decided not to put numbers on it for now at least. I think the main reason is that I was feeling lazy. Maybe next year. :)

Then I covered an old can from the kitchen with more paper and added rick-rack. Gotta have a place to store the pieces, after all.

Then I spent what felt like an eternity cutting and gluing little paper-pieced figures. How did I make these, you ask? Well, first I brainstormed 31 different Halloween related items and spent a few days sketching out what I wanted them to look like. Then I got out my cardstock scraps and went to town. I added details with Sharpies, googley eyes, acrylic paint, and art chalk. Each piece has a magnet on the back so that it sticks to the board.

If you are interested in making a Halloween countdown like this, but don't want to spend the time paper piecing, you could check at your local craft stores for those little wooden shapes they put out in the holiday section. I saw them at Joann's, Michael's, and a few other stores this year. Then you'd just have to paint them. The only hard part would be finding 31 different shapes. Most stores I saw only had 20 or so. But I'm sure you could improvise! Also, I know they sell tin sheets framed in unfinished wood at several stores here. Those would work perfectly for the background if you don't have a magnetic white board lying around.

Anywho, here's the finished board in all it's glory. I am so excited with how it turned out. It was definitely one of those "live and learn" projects. I now know that I can make ANYTHING out of paper. haha.

Now the hard part is waiting for October so my little girl can start counting down to Halloween!

Oh, and if you've made a Halloween calendar or have seen a cool one somewhere, leave me a comment with the link. I'd love to see other versions!