It’s no secret Incredibles 2 is coming out, and the Flaum family is really excited about it! We will get to view it on board a Disney cruise ship (SO cool!) – and yes, we are counting down to an epic INCREDIBLE vacation and summer that will be filled with adventure, movies, cousins, vacations, and fun! So how to keep the fun rolling at home and as we count down? Here are some ideas!
Countdown to Disney Calendar
From dining reservations to making payments on a cruise – as the main planner of the family I always have a calendar with dates, sticky notes, and reminders. But what about when the trip starts to get close? When you can really get excited? That’s when a Disney countdown calendar comes in handy!
First let’s talk DIY options – here are a few we have done:
- Countdown “chain” – make loops of cardstock, chain them together, remove a link each day until it’s time to go!
- Countdown sign – make two sets of 0-9 numbers and “count down” moving the day down each new day. Not a favorite but it works
- Printed calendar to hang on wall (DIY tutorial for this option in this post!)
- Simply marking the important countdown dates in a planner/family calender
Our favorite is a colorful and visual “countdown” calendar. You can use a ruler to draw your own, print a template, or what we did was to print 5 rows x 7 column EXCEL sheets to create approximately 95 days of counting down fun. This was by far the fastest easiest option to give us a blank template to play with.
note: we did make one whooooops (see above: there is only 1 square for 11 & 12…) but we left it. These things work out!
Once printed the “how-to” steps go like so:
- Tape together the sheets (if multiple used) so the squares line up.
- Add the numbers for countdown (hand drawn, stickers, stamps, etc)
- Add stickers and decorative elements
- Hang it up, and count it down!
We created a short YouTube video to share this process as well.
What we like about this is that it is fun, easy, and quick as well! It also lets us use up random crafty stickers and have a visual reminder of the vacation we are excited for.
You might notice this countdown is to Europe – we’re very excited to be in the final months before our trip to Disneyland Paris and a Disney Cruise! We have a lot of videos and blog posts planned about that trip including packing, character meals, and everything in between.
For this project one more thing I will note: If you want you can also include “Disney themed days” or plans. For example 101 Dalmatians, or watching Frozen 32 days (aka freezing!) prior. 7 days to go Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs… you get the idea!
If you have your own countdown traditions or ideas we would love to hear them. Share here!
Thor Ragnarok: DIY TShirts
We can hardly believe November is here. We are entering a season of MUCH anticipated movies – Coco, Star Wars, and Thor Ragnarok! Thor has the distinction of kicking off the holiday movie season for us this week. To celebrate – Rebecca and I had to DIY some Tshirts for ourselves since we have no Marvel or Avengers clothes!
For this project you’ll need:
- Tshirt (we got ours at the craft store for $2 each!)
- iron-on vinyl or glitter material
- iron
- material to cover the design while you heat transfer it
We used a ScanNCut machine (I am a brand ambassador for Brother/ScanNCut- it’s a machine we love!) but you should be able to make a design or purchase a design to use on any brand of electronic die cutting machine. Not normally crafty and don’t have one? No problem! Use scissors or a craft knife to cut out your design. It is a lot more time consuming – but it works.
Here is a video showing the DIY for our project:
They turned out so fun!
To recap the process you need to:
- Make your design
- Warm up the shirt
- Place design on shirt
- Use a piece of fabric to cover design and iron on
- Remove carrier sheet if you used it
- Enjoy!
We are so happy with how these turned out – such fun! I found “avengers clip art” online to use – but there are talented designers who create custom files you can purchase or use free as well. Now we just count the hours until 6pm Friday when we’ve got tickets for the movie. Can’t wait!