Hi everyone! It’s Tara from Secretbees Studio! Now that Thanksgiving is over the Christmas countdown has begun! For little children (and probably most adults) the season is full of magic and excitement and a Christmas Countdown Calendar is a fun and easy way to way to build suspense and anticipation until the big day!

The Simple Stories 'Merry & Bright' paper collection is full of bright traditional reds and greens along with the most adorably festive holiday icons and beautiful floral images! People young and old alike will love flipping the sections of this cheerful and jolly Christmas Countdown Calendar!

The idea for this countdown calendar was inspired by the 'Number Pocket Pieces' that are a part of this collection! They are in coordinating colors and designs and in varying sizes so they add a lot of interesting dimension to the pages! The other designs are the charming 3x4 and 4x6 journaling cards along with patterned papers cut to 1/4 inch larger. 

I wanted to really showcase all of the gorgeous papers, so I used two of each for the numbered pages and then one pattern for all of the journal cards. Decorating and embellishing was so easy with the huge selection of festive stickers and chipboard along with a few pearls, gems and glitter! Once I had all of my sections complete, I attached them to the base with metal rings 1/2 inch from the top so there would be plenty of room to flip.

This calendar was made with a base of chipboard that I cut to 11 3/4 inches by 7 inches. This left plenty of room for all of the journaling cards that I used as the pages of the calendar, plus it worked well with the 12x12 sheets of lovely patterned paper. I attached two triangular 'legs' to the back to hold it up and give it good stability. 

The first section has two journal card pages and then numbers from one to three. You could add more if you want to start your countdown super early! The second section also has two decorative journal card pages and numbers from zero to nine so there are tons of number combinations to be made! I included the decorative pages for when the days are in the single digits. My very talented daughter wrote 'days until' on a strip of the woodgrain paper that is part of the collection as well!

Pull out those beautiful Christmas paper collections and make a countdown calendar of your own! There is still plenty of time to get in on the holiday spirit! Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! For a closer look at this wonderful calendar, be sure and check out my video on YouTube!