Disney Countdown Chain

Countdown to Disney with this darling Mickey Mouse inspired chain. You can even change up the colors and add a bow for a Minnie Mouse chain! Grab the FREE cut file today!

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[UPDATED 4/29/2021]

Last October, we took our first family vacation to Disneyland!  It was so much fun and the kids loved it.  I hadn’t been to Disneyland in about 15 years so I was excited to go too!

Since this was a somewhat last minute trip, I didn’t have as much time to build my kids (mostly my daughter) up to it as much as I would have liked.  Like most kids her age–she was 3 at the time–she doesn’t fully understand the passage of time.  To help her with this (and to save my sanity!), I made a simple Disney countdown chain.  We’ve used countdown chains before to help her learn how time passes, so I knew that making one again would be a successful way to count down to our trip.

Supplies needed to make your own Disney countdown chain

• red, yellow, white and black cardstock (This “Best Day Ever” patterned paper is so cute too!)
• stapler
• double-sided tape or scrapbook adhesive dots
• Silhouette Cameo or other cutting machine
• Cutting mat
• Disney stickers, die cuts, etc (optional)

To begin with, decide how large you want the top of your countdown to be.  Mine is about 8.5″ x 8.5″.  If you’re using a Silhouette machine, open up your Silhouette Design Studio and create the shape you want.  I just used a scalloped border I had in my library and then created a circle inside of it.  For the text, I used a font called “Waltograph” which you can get for free. (Check out my post about downloading fonts to your computer if you need some help!)  I kept it simple with “Countdown to Disney”, but you could put whatever you like. I let my machine do the cutting and writing for me, but decided to color the words in to make them stand out better. (If you wanted to add Disney stickers or die-cuts to this part, you definitely could.)

*NOTE* If you do not have a Silhouette machine or pens for your machine, just open up your word document program, choose a shape (optional) and type the text in.  Then print it out and cut out the shape.

Then I pulled out my cardstock.  I decided to stick with classic Disney/Mickey Mouse colors of red, yellow, white and black.  However, you could easily make a Minnie Mouse countdown by using pink, purple, white and black and attaching bows to the mouse chains. (If you wanted to get really creative, you could even alternate Mickey and Minnie chains.)

For the chain, simply cut strips of paper out in each of the four colors.  The number of strips you’ll need will be determined by how long your family’s countdown is.  I only needed three strips of each color for a total of 12 strips.  Each of my strips is 2″x10″.

For the black strip, you can either cut out more of the same black strips as above, or you can cut the “ear” strips like you see the above image. I have created {FREE} SVG files for both the plain strips and the “ear” strips. You will also find circles to stick on the red chain (the buttons for Mickey’s pants), as well as bows if you decide to do a Minnie Mouse theme instead. You can download the files below.

*NOTE* There are two SVG files for this project. Be sure to download each one so you have all the pieces to make your countdown chain.

How to get the {FREE} Disney Countdown Chain SVG file

You can download the FREE Disney Countdown Chain SVG by entering your name and email below. You will then receive the file in a separate email which you can then download onto your computer or directly into your cutting machine software.

File #1

File #2

Once you’ve got everything cut out, lay your strips out in this order: yellow, red, black, white.  If you look at mine, you can see that once it’s all put together, the order is important because it kind of looks like Mickey Mouse (yellow: shoes, red: pants, black: head, white: spacer).  Fun, right?

When you are putting the chain together, overlap the strips by at least 1/2″ so that you can staple them together easily. 

For the black strips, be careful that you face the “ears” all the same direction. After the chain is completed, gently fold the “ears” forward. Place the “button” pieces (2 each) on the red chain. Staple the top-most chain to the bottom of your big countdown shape and hang it on the wall!

This is a super simple project to make, but the finished product is absolutely darling!  I almost didn’t want to rip any of the chains off because it looked so cute hanging there on my wall.

What does your family do to countdown to Disney or other family vacations?