This post originally appeared over on my friend Carrie’s blog, My Favorite Finds, to celebrate her upcoming trip to Disney!  I wanted to create a super simple countdown calendar.  While this calendar is really geared towards counting down to a Disney trip, you can easily change it up to countdown to anything fun {retirement, a holiday, etc.}.

I started with a square unprimed board I picked up from the craft store.  They come already primed but cost a little more.  I know I always have plenty of paint around so I rarely bother to pay extra for the ones that are already primed.  Just call me Shan-Cheap-O.
I painted the board white to start because, for me, I really think of red, black and white as Disney colors.  Then, I painted some of the little wooden plaques with black chalkboard paint.  The chalkboard paints takes several coats and I alternate my paint direction with each coat for a smoother look.
I put three small nails in the top of the board to hang my little chalkboards on.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the words I wanted to use in red vinyl and then put it on to my board using the transfer paper method.  It wasn’t under last year that I discovered how to use transfer paper the right way and now I am totally in love.
Do you have a trip to Disney in the works?  This would be a super fun countdown to do with your kids!  Or, if you are heading somewhere else, you can totally customize this countdown for any trip just by changing the bottom line.

You can find a list of all the places I like to party here.