{Tutorial} diy Chalkboard Countdown Sign

Most of us have had a reason to countdown the days until something whether it be Christmas or our birthday. Right? I thought countdowns were only a childhood thing, but the older I get, the more I find myself counting down. Countdown to Christmas, countdown until a fun vacation, xxx days until the baby is due, xxx days until hubs returns home from a deployment etc etc. Countdowns seem to be a major part of my life these days! Even more so now that I have tots. I found this “days until” chalkboard  and made it about a year ago as a gift. There have been many times when I have told myself that I need to make another one. So, I finally did! With my husbands YEAR deployment quickly approaching I thought it would be perfect. I know our daughter will love erasing and writing a new number on the chalk part everyday. And I love that I have another chalkboard in my house. They’re so useful…and cute!

What I love about this countdown chalkboard sign is that it’s inexpensive and you can customize it. You can paint the main board any color you want. The original one I made over a year ago was white. This time I made it grey. If you already have a Silhouette machine you can cut out the letters that way or you can order from Back 40 Life for only $5. You can also order regular vinyl decals here. If you choose the vinyl letters, just make sure you line them up straight on the board.

For your Countdown “Days Until” Sign you will need:

• 1in x 6in x 30in pine board. Home Depot/Lowes have some precut in almost this exact size. 
• White primer
• Black spray paint
• Black paint
• Black chalkboard paint
• Foam paintbrushes
• Days Until vinyl letters (Back 40 Life, Silouette machine, or vinyl letters)
• Electric sander with rough grit sand paper
• Two sawtooth hangers if you want to hang your sign
• Chalk pens

Now that you have all your supplies lets get to work.

1. Prime or paint your entire board whatever color you’d like. You don’t have to paint the back; just the sides and top. I thought I’d prime mine white, but at the last minute decided to just paint grey with some extra paint we had.
2. Once the paint has dried, paint the edges black.
3. Before centering your vinyl letters, run a credit card over the letters to make sure they’re stuck to the paper. Now peel your backing paper and center the words. Tip: My letters would not stick to my backing paper so I microwaved them for 3 seconds and it worked beautifully! 
4. Stick the letters to the white side of the board. Once you have placed the letters, run the credit card across the letters again to make sure the letters are really stuck. This will ensure that paint won’t seep underneath.  
5. Spray black paint over the entire area of the Days Until letters.  It’s ok if you get the sides because you’re going to paint it with chalk paint. Let Dry.
6. To the left and right side of the “Days Until” words, paint two coats of chalkboard paint rectangles.  Dry.
7. When the sign is completely dry, peel the vinyl letters. You’ll see the pretty color you painted the board underneath. What a sweet surprise! And the words look like you painted them on. Voila! If any paint snuck under the vinyl, just use a small brush or paint pen to touch up those spots.

Using your sandpaper you can rough up the edges a little bit. You can leave as is though. I will have mine just resting on a shelf, but if you’d rather hang your countdown sign, just attach a couple saw tooth hangers to the back.

Wasn’t that easy?

Here are a couple other examples of some vinyl crafts I have done. I did not use a silhouette machine with these! I just bought vinyl lettering like these found on amazon. You place the letters onto your canvas or whatever material you choose to use, then paint over the top. In the first one I just did all yellow. All I did was lay my letters down where I wanted, ran a credit card across them, then painted yellow. Once dry, I peeled the vinyl. You’ll want to touch up the white if the paint bleeds.

In the second I wanted a more ombre look, as you can tell. I also wanted two different fonts and couldn’t find pre-cut vinyl in anything other than a block font. So, I used carbon paper for the word “sun”. If you’re wondering how to transfer text with carbon paper, here’s a tutorial! Once the paint is completely dry, just remove the lettering. You’ll prb notice my paint bled under the letters, but I actually liked it, so I left it as is. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

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