JustRite Christmas Countdown

Today, Stamper's Dream is wrapping up another JustRite Week. Hope you've enjoyed all the projects shown so far! Be sure to visit Cammie, Michelle, and Tosh, who all have projects to share today as well.

I'm excited to share a Christmas countdown project today. The windowed pocket at the upper left holds a tag that shows the number of days left until Christmas. (I think 21 is accurate for today - how scary is that??). Here's a closer look:




The circle frame on top of the pocket was made by stamping one of the 2" Decorative Round Wide Borders on green and one of the Just A Note 1 5/8" borders on black. (For the black ring, I used a star border and stamped in white ink. To help it stand out a bit more, I dotted the centers of each star with a white gel pen.) I cut both stamped images into rings using Spellbinders circle Nestabilities.

On the tag is a punched circle that shows the number of days left until Christmas. Here's a look at the tag out of its pocket:



The brackets and numbers are from the Curlz Monogram Kit 1 5/8" and have been stamped onto a circle punched from one of the patterns from the Mistletoe collection by Making Memories. (The green "Merry & Bright" ring, and the white journaling lines on the red background were part of the patterned paper. This pattern was *perfect* for this project. I'll show you some more number circles later.) Another thing that's perfect for a project like this? JustRite stamps. Can you imagine how many rub-ons this would take? Gotta love how the stamps keep on giving and giving and giving.

At first, I was going to make a whole bunch of tags, each with its own number and just switch out the tags each day, but that's a lot of tags! What I did instead was wrap the tag with a piece of acetate to create a clear pocket. Now all I have to change each day is the stamped number circle inside the clear pocket. The acetate is just a sleeve wrapped on the left and right secured on the back with Scor-Tape. I added a line of machine stitching along the bottom to close the pocket bottom and allow the number circle to rest in such a spot that it can be seen through the pocket window when the tag is in place. High-tech engineering here, folks ;) I put a little pull tab on the number circle to make it easier to get in and out. Here's a closer look:



Did I mention how *perfect* this Mistletoe pattern is??



Okay, some more details and pictures:



The glittered green chipboard letters? Be still my heart!! They are glittered Thickers by American Crafts. Can we talk major hoardfest with these? I've had them for at least a year waiting for just the right project. They look pretty sparkly in the pictures, but they are even better in real life. And they came just like this! No painting, no heat-and-stick powder, no glue pad, no fuss. I just thought it would be cool to substitute a fun little Christmas tree and button for the letter "i." There are actually two trees, layered, and both were cut from one of the Mistletoe patterns. The little "until" banner was done with JustRite's 15-point Times New Roman letter stamps (part of the Deluxe 2" Round Monogram Kit, as well as some other JustRite sets.)

The whole thing is mounted onto a 6x8 glossy ceramic tile (the kind you'd see in a bathroom) of all things. I wanted something flat, super thick, and sturdy, and this fit the bill. I plan on displaying this on a small wire picture stand that I got at Michael's.

Thanks so much for stopping by!