DIY Countdown Calendar

Since this is the first birthday my Daughter is old enough to really get excited about, and because it’s on Valentine’s Day, I wanted to make her something extra special. All of the cute advent calendars I saw in stores and online this past Christmas inspired me to create a Birthday countdown calendar. The beauty of this calendar is it can be used for any holiday. If I wanted to switch it up for Christmas I’d just replace the hearts hanging in the top with ornaments and create new numbers for the boxes. This project was fun and simple!

I set out to find a shelf or box that I could transform into the calendar I had in my mind. I was very excited when I found this shadow box at Michael’s that was originally intended to display shot glasses. There was a door on the front of the cabinet with a piece of broken glass. I didn’t need the door or the glass and it was on clearance

Once I found the cabinet, I searched online for 2 piece 2 inch boxes and found that a lot of them already had patterns on them. I ended up finding these silver boxes at a jewelry store for $0.39 a piece.

Next, I spray painted the cabinet white. I had a vision, after all, and in this vision the calendar was white.

Then I decided on a font for the numbers, I wanted it to be fun and whimsical. Given that graphic design is my profession and obsession this was the most difficult part of the entire project for me The verdict? Desigers. You can download it for free here.

Next I used my nifty little craft punches to punch the glittery scalloped circles and numbers out.

You can purchase these at your local craft store or online. Here’s the links for the punches I used on amazon.com:
2 inch scalloped circle punch.
1 1/2 inch circle punch.
I love craft punches, they come in handy all the time!
Each box has a little surprise in it ranging from “warm fuzzies” to candy, stickers and erasers. Just little surprises, or as my daughter says “bur-prises!” (we have no idea where she got that from, but it’s really cute when she says it)

I had originally planned to use this pretty pink ribbon to hang the letters, however, it proved to be too much of a hassle trying to align them all perfectly…and this way it’s easy to re-design the calendar for future countdowns. I didn’t end up using the sticker letters either, but I’m sure I’ll use them for my daughter’s birthday party.

I used a glue stick to adhere the numbers to the scalloped circles and the scalloped circles to the boxes.

For the name, I found these really cute chipboard letters with rhinestones at Hobby Lobby and used the left over glittery card stock to punch scalloped squares out.

I cut a piece of tape in half and taped the heart ornaments to the top of their squares, put the boxes in chronological order and there you have it…


My little one is already excited to start counting down to her birthday/Valentine’s Day and I had fun making the calendar. Win-win!

(click on the photos to enlarge and view in slideshow format)

Want to make your own countdown calendar? I made a couple of free printables, grab ‘em below
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