This post contains affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED
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- Large Wood Tree Cutout
- Wood Star Cutout
- Die Cut Ornaments
- White Vinyl
- Transfer Tape
- Weeding Tool
- Scraper
- Wood Glue
- Wire Brad Nails
- Paint & Brushes
- Electronic cutter (cricut explore, silhouette or other cutter)
- Cut File – Days Until Christmas BA1812 (available for free in my resource library)
HERE’S WHAT YOU DO
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD THE FREE SVG FILE
The first thing you’ll need to do is get the free SVG file you’ll use for this project. I keep all the SVG files I use for the projects I make in my SVG Library. These SVG files work with Cricut and Silhouette machines, as well as many others. This library is open to everyone and is free! You can access the library here. Look for the file called Days Until Christmas BA1812. It will be listed under the Craftmas 2021 Category-Day 3.
STEP 2: CUT AND TAPE VINYL DESIGN
Open the design in your software program. I resized the design to about 11.5″ wide and left the height proportional.
When everything is sized correctly, you can cut the vinyl with your Cricut or Silhouette. Once it has finished cutting, weed away the excess vinyl.
Use a weeding tool to pull out the small pieces left inside the letters and numbers.
Cut a piece of transfer tape and place it sticky side up on your surface. Then place the vinyl on top of the transfer tape and smooth it down.
Rub over the design firmly with your scraper tool.
Then, trim off the excess transfer tape and vinyl backing and cut apart the numbers.
Now that the vinyl is ready to go, let’s work on the wood tree.
STEP 3: PREP THE WOOD TREE
For this project, I used a large tree cutout from a local craft shop. It measures about 15″ x 7.5″. Sand the tree and then paint it green. You’ll probably need to do 2-3 coats on the front and sides. Painting the back is optional, but I like to do just one quick coat to make it look nice and finished. Allow the green paint plenty of time to dry.
Once it’s dry, you can place a piece of painters over the tree to separate it from the trunk. Then, paint the trunk brown.
You can also paint the wooden star cutout gold.
STEP 4: ASSEMBLE THE COUNTDOWN SIGN
Once the paint is dry, it’s time to figure out where all the different pieces will fit on the tree. Place two ornaments, the star, and phrase on the tree. Shift things around until the spacing of everything looks good.
Make marks inside of the holes on both ornaments. Then, hammer two wire nails into the marks.
Hammer in some skinny nails for the ornaments to hang on. I used Wire Brad Nails that are 1.25″ and hammered them at a slight angle upward so the ornaments won’t slide off.
Next, glue on the wooden star.
Place an ornament on the bottom nail and then grab the vinyl phrase. Remove the vinyl backing and position the design below the ornament.
Rub over the design with your scraper and then pull off the transfer tape.
Next, apply the vinyl numbers to the die-cut ornaments.
Once all the numbers are in place, you can hang the ornaments on the nails.
That’s it! This project is finished. Now you can start counting down the days until Christmas arrives.
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