Do you use a Christmas countdown calendar? Counting down to the big day is one of my favorite Christmas activities. We probably have way more countdown calendars than we need… but they all get attention. This year I’ve just finished making a magnetic Christmas countdown calendar for our fridge. The kids are just as excited as I am!
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Silhouette America sent me a Silhouette Portrait and a few extra goodies. After checking out the all of the incredible Silhouette projects on Pinterest and playing around with it for a bit, I decided my first Silhouette project would be fairly simple. The range of what you can do with a Silhouette Portrait is pretty amazing. There are so many different types of paper and accessories the options are pretty much unlimited.
BUT if you have been here before, you know that I prefer things to be simple…. super simple. This countdown Christmas calendar is just that (thanks to the Portrait).
Magnetic Countdown Christmas Tree
For this project you’ll need Silhouette Design #4145 Christmas Tree by Nathan Jenne, Silhouette Design #17079 Present, Silhouette Design #47817 Fun Star, card stock and 1-2 sheets Adhesive Magnet Paper.
- This is a print & cut project so set the registration marks first. Make sure to set the size paper you will be printing. I used copy paper but if I were to do it again I would use card stock instead.
- Load the Christmas Tree design onto the design space. Ungroup the pieces. I wanted the tree to fill the paper as much as possible so I made the bottom section as large as I could without going outside of the margin. Place all three tree sections together to form a tree. Weld them together and place the tree truck where you want it. (Both Ungroup and Weld can be selected when you right click on the image.)
- Fill the tree with green and the trunk with brown. (Or use any color you’d like! There are tons of colors and patterns to choose from.)
- Load Present and Fun Star onto the design space. Ungroup and delete the pieces you won’t be using.
- Create one star and 5 presents. I used two different size presents.
Note: I wanted to see what the ornaments, star and presents would look like on the tree, so I stared out placing them as they would be on the tree. Then moved them around to fill the paper.
- Use the Draw an Eclipse tool to create two different size ornaments. You will need to fit 19 ornaments on the tree so keep that in mind when you start sizing.
- Duplicate each circle until you a total of 19. Place them on the tree to make sure they’ll fit.
- Arrange all of the items around the design space (inside the margin). Make sure that none of the objects are overlapping. I found it easier to place the bigger presents, the star and the bigger ornaments first.
- Fill the ornaments, presents and star with an assortment of colors and patterns.
- Use the text tool to add number 1 – 25 to each present, ornament and the star.
That’s it for the design portion. All that’s left is to print & cut. So easy!
- Print the picture as is making sure the registration marks are in place.
- Before sending the printed picture through the Portrait make sure to Group the tree into one piece. You can also select the smaller pieces and group them. This will allow you to use the Cut Edge setting in Cut Settings so that the numbers and the tree truck will not be cut separately.
- Set the Portrait up for the paper you are using and let the cutting begin.
- Reset for the Adhesive Magnet Paper and send it through the Portrait.
- Peel the adhesive off the magnetic paper and apply your printed paper.
- Place the tree on the fridge and let the kids add a new number every day! (Or work backwards and start with a full tree.)
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This is great!!! I love it!!!
Christmas tradition every year is to get my sister’s kids and mine together and do Christmas cookies. We roll out dough, use various cookie cutouts and decorate. I bring over lemon drop cookies. I think I will add ginger bread houses to the mix since the kids are old enough now. Thanks
We’ve been wanting one of these for a long time. The website looks awesome!
WE like doing an advent calendar!
I love our reading countdown to Christmas- the kids unwrap a Christmas book every night until Christmas Eve when they get a new one. 🙂
That is adorable!
Every Christmas eve my husband and I watch It’s A Wonderful Life and wrap presents after spending the entire say watching Christmas specials with our daughter.
I love all the ideas I find on blogs, would love to try
I look forward to cooking and making holiday crafts with our baby granddaughter as she gets older.
I am looking forward to decorating the tree with the kids and making cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Our family (which is large) all contributes to the making of Christmas morning breakfast before opening gifts. This means that there can be 14 of us in a very small kitchen at any one time preparing the food.
I am looking forward to hanging huge ornaments from our ceiling! Also, to preparing a special dessert to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas eve……Butter Pecan Torte.
Love this advent magnetic tree for the fridge! Clever idea.
This is brilliant – love it! Would love to try to make this!
Our Christmas tradition starts the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We put a fire on in the fireplace, make hot cocoa with marshmallows, decorate gingerbread houses with the kiddos (with whatever candy and icing is left after the kids get to it), and put up the Christmas tree. And our elf on the shelf comes for a visit too! : )
I’m looking forward to picking out our Christmas tree this year
I am looking forward to having a giant breakfast at our Grandmas house. That is my favorite each year.
I love going with my family to watch the live Nativity at an outdoor amphitheater in our town.
This looks so fun!!
I look forward to decorating and baking with the kids.
I would love to give this to my mom for Christmas!
Spending time with family is most important. Having a Silhouette would be a great crafty project to do with my children!
We always choose a family to do the “12 day’s of Christmas” for secretly. It’s so fun. I love giving!
A Christmas tradition I am looking forward to is baking and exchanging cookies!
I’m looking forward to taking my children to choose their 2014 ornaments! Thanks for the chance to win!
My favorite Christmas tradition is making cookies. Choosing which new recipes to try and which old favorites to make again is always a fun family discussion and we have a wonderful time making and decorating the cookies.
we make cookies for santa every Christmas eve
Getting the whole family together
Decorating the tree
Every Christmas Eve since we got married (23 of them now), after the kids went to bed and all the presents were under the tree, I would give him a fancy wrapped box with a pair of cheesy Christmas boxer shorts. He looks forward to this and our kids love to help pick them out. Thanks for the great giveaway!
I’m looking forward to baking my orange-cranberry bread – lots and lots of it!
A tradition I am looking forward to this year is going sledding with the entire family, we do it every year.
Making cookie for Santa with the kids!
I love Christmas breakfast with my family; I look forward to it every year.
I’m looking forward to our annual cookie decorating in pajamas. 🙂
Our Advent calendar.
I love our tradition of opening one small gift Christmas Eve and then the rest of the gifts on Christmas Day. That way it feels as if we’ve had two Christmases in a row!
I look forward to making and decorating sugar cookies
white elephant gift exchange!
Making homemade cinnamon rolls with my family:)
We like to make home made ornaments to give as presents, they become keepsakes on our tree.
We gather at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve to eat and then open presents as a family which is my favorite night of the year 🙂
Our Christmas eve yankee swap!
I am looking forward to decorating the tree. It is so much fun pulling out all the different ornaments and decorations from the past. Especially the handmade ones.
I love drinking hot cocoa and watching Home Alone with the family 🙂
Making new ones with my son
I’m looking forward to ham on Christmas.
making holiday cookies with my children
we love baking christmas sugar cookies together …and my daughter is 34 and she still loves to help me! I need this do we can label our containers to make the cookies ever more special! Pick me,
I look forward to my nieces and nephews getting a little older so they can join us in making tamales every year.
Since we’re a military family who live far from our hometown our tradition now is to spend time with other military families who we consider our family away from home.
We all ear matching pajams
Baking Christmas cookies.
I love decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music!
Every year on Christmas eve we do a pajama party and make Christmas Morning Wifesaver together while listening and singing to Christmas tunes. I love it. Very much looking forward to it.
Im actually looking forward to cutting down the tree and decorating it. I do every year.
I enjoy our Advent Sundays.
There are four of us, so each one gets a Sunday to choose a special treat (or the dinner menu if they want) and we light our Advent wreath and read a devotional. It’s a restful time in the busyness of the season.
Out German chocolate advent calendar which we’ve already started!
We celebrate Christ’s birth with a banquet. It’s a lovely time and there is no worries about presents and whatnot. Just a celebration of a very important birth.
I am looking forward to coming up with creative ideas for Elf on the Shelf for my daughteR!
Putting up the children’s trees – we have a family tree, and each child has a smaller tree with their sentimental ornaments. We drag the boxes down from the attic, make cookies, break out the milk and eggnog, and set up their trees.
we go and help a homeless sheater every year
Baking cookies!!!
Making candy and cookies for friends and family.
We are looking forward to baking some gluten free cookies for my son, and making regular for the rest of the family.
We always make a BIG meal and my whole extended family comes into town. Afterwards, we play games all afternoon!
I love decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music!
I love my yearly Christmas cookie baking weekend with the kids.
I love hanging ornaments with my kids.
I enjoy going to church on christmas eve with my family 🙂
I’m looking forward to new pj’s on Christmas eve.
Every year, we select one night to spend time driving around to see the lights in the park and to visit Santa.