Countdown Keychain

Todays craft is a creation all my own! The "countdown keychain" was inspired by my upcoming beach trip! I am really looking forward to it so I decided to make a countdown... 12 days to go!

Above is a picture of the final product. I used markers, 3D stickers, and color-your-own stickers. This project is the perfect craft to use up any scraps or left overs from scrapbooks. My countdown is for my beach vacation and therefore is beach themed, but the great thing about this tutorial is that it can be for ANY occasion! Here's how to make your own:

Step 1. Figure out how many days until your event, trip, or holiday. Add 1 for the "zero" page (I like to have a 0 for the day-of but you can leave it out if you'd prefer). Add another 1 for the cover page. So for my trip that is 12 days away, I had 14 squares. Even after the countdown is over, I plan to keep my craft and I want to remember what is was from someday!

Step 2. Cut out the number of squares (or any shape) of cardstock you'll need. I had some leftover squares from a previous project that I had saved thinking, "someday I will need some squares for something"... And I was right! Because these were scraps they ranged in size from 9.5cm to 10cm squares, so sligtly different. Just adds character :)

Step 3. Stack up all of your "pages" so that they all match up at one corner. Make a single hole punch in the upper left hand corner of one page and use that as a pattern for the other pages.

Step 4. Decorate! Go crazy! Make it fun! I tried to make the number the focus of each page (it is a countdown after all!). By the end I was getting more creative and tried to incorporate the number into a beach themed object! When I reached a brain block, I just googled "beach doodles" and got some great ideas! Below are some of the stickers I used.

Step 5. Layout all your pages to admire your hard work :)

Step 6. This is where the "keychain" part comes in. Find a key ring somewhere, I just went to my box of keychains and took one off an old souvineir keychain. You could use a ribbon, some string, a rubber band, even a twisted paper clip! Anything will work! Then put your key ring through each page. If I were to do it again, I would somehow reinforce the holes. Luckily none of my pages ripped this time, but I was concerned that it could happen.

Well I hope you like this idea and that there is something for you to countdown to! I have to say, this would be a great alternative to an advent calendar for the holidays, just an idea!

As always, comment below with your results! Or let me know what you think of this idea, what you plan to do, how you would change it, and what you're counting down to!

Letter Art - The Craft with Many Uses

Tonight I found myself feeling a little bored and at the same time having that need to craft.  Luckily I discovered something that is easy, quick, and fun!  Letter Art!  After cleaning off my bookshelf recently I found some old books with ideas for letter art designs (you can still buy the same one I have here).  Tonight when I decided to work on a project using letter art, I remembered I needed to make a birthday card for someone whose birthday is in a few days.  This was the perfect way to get me started!  After flipping through all the ideas I settled on a flower design.  Here is my process for creating (I think) a relatively good looking card:

Step 1. Fold paper into your desired card shape, I was boring today and went with white, which turned out not to be such a bad choice since my design was busy.
Step 2. Start drawing in PENCIL!  Feeling brave and just starting with marker, pen, etc? I hope you have extra paper because chances are you'll mess up at some point.  Don't try to replicate the book too hard, you do want it to have that handmade feel a little bit.  Your own spin on things will make your card that much more personal :)
Step 3. Go over the letters (not the flowers) with marker, I chose green since to me the letters are kind of like the stems of the flowers.
Step 4. Color the flowers, I followed the color scheme used in the book today but you could easily change it up to match your style or the recipient's favorite colors.
Step 5. Write a message inside, sign your name, and you're done!  Sometimes I like to write something on the back of the card so the recipient knows it is made with love, such as: made especially for (recipient name) by (your name).

After finishing the birthday card, my need to craft was not yet satisfied, so I found the next design I wanted to try and wrote my name.  I chose the Zebra print and did my name in bubble letters, outlined in black.  Then I used purple and blue colored pencils to decorate the rest of the page.

Here are my results and a picture of the book:

I hope you can have some fun with letter art and maybe even come up with some designs of your own! This was a really simple craft that wasn't too time consuming (although it could be...) and made me feel like a kid again!  Let me know how your designs turn out!