We’re Counting Down . . . Again!

As I write this post, the kids and I are exactly 50 days from our next trip to Walt Disney World.

A few months ago, I made a confession here at The Disney Moms . . . I said I wasn’t as excited about this next trip for a few different reasons.  Well, guess what?  Circumstances have changed!  Now, my oldest daughter, Ashley, will be able to take this trip with us after all!  And, I won’t be working — so, it’ll be all play for us!

And, because of that, the excitement has come back in full force!  My middle daughter, Gracie (12), helped me to create a quick and easy countdown for this trip (shown above) and I thought I’d quickly run through the steps with you, in case you’d like to create one of your own . . . 

What you will need:

• a frame (we used an old 8×10″ frame that was no longer in use in our home – I’m sure you have a stash of frames somewhere too!)
• Disney scrapbook paper (we had some left over from this project)
• Alphabet and number stickers (these are available anywhere scrapbook supplies are sold – I recommend choosing large ones that are easy to read, in colors that coordinate with your scrapbook paper)
• And, if you’re lucky enough to have a cricut machine (or know someone who does), a bunch of Mickey head cut-outs (if you can’t get these, then improvise with circles, squares, or any old scraps!)
• Glue dots (the removable kind) or Velcro dots

Steps for creating your countdown:

1. Choose your favorite piece of scrapbook paper (we chose one that was fairly plain, but had a Mickey Mouse prominently displayed in the corner).  Trim it to fit the size of your frame. Insert into frame.
2. Using your alphabet stickers, write the message that you would like to appear on your countdown. As you can see, we went with “days ’til we go to DISNEY”, but you can use whatever phrase you like.
   (Here’s where I messed up a little – we just used supplies that we had on hand, and I didn’t have alphabet stickers that corresponded (color-wise) with our paper.  I should have had bright yellow, red, and black – that would have showed up much better.  Since our letter kinda blended into the background, I used a fine-point Sharpie to draw a border around them and stand out more.)
3. Insert your countdown into the frame. 
4. If you have Mickey Mouse cutouts, use the number stickers on these (the number of days ’til your trip will determine how many you need – we made 2 of each number, 0-9).
   (If you don’t have access to a Cricut, I would recommend just cutting out simple shapes – circles would work fine for this project.)
5. Now, your countdown is all ready to use.  We are using the removable glue dots on the back of our numbers; but I do think Velcro dots might have worked a bit better.  Really, it’s a matter of personal preference, I guess.

If you decide to use this idea, I’d love to see pictures of your countdown! We’ve done lots of different types of countdowns for our past Disney trips (think paper chains, etc.).  Currently, this one is my favorite.

I’d love to hear about how you count down to Disney. Please leave a comment.