To do a timer using standard counters is a complex design, costly and will mostly not have any features.
I will suggest using a microcontroller especially since you are a begineer in digital, It is much easier to write and debug code than complex hardware, it is much cheaper, and more flexible: you can add lots of features to your timer only by software!
Some of the cheap and highly supported microcontrollers are: Microchip PIC and ATMEL AVR and the 8051/8052.
Regards,
Gam