Wooden Growth Chart: Avery

I have been wanting growth charts for the kids FOREVER! I want to document their growth b/c I'm sentimental about stuff like that. When I told my mom that I wanted to get growth charts for the kids she said that she had one from when I was younger. Huh?!? All I remember is being very excited to stand against the doorway to see if I had grown and she would pencil it in. Oh, and did I mention that doorway is in the Philippines?!? lol Then she brings down this rolled up growth chart...it's cute, but there's only ONE height marked on it: 5'1". Umm...I'm 5'1" now! lol It would have been cute to use if she had all (or most) of my height listed and to use that with the kids. 

So I nixed that idea and went back to looking for growth charts. I wanted something that would be easy to move if/when we moved, personalized and made out of wood. But everywhere I looked was so expensive! Sorry kiddos, but I'm not paying $75+. So I decided to make my own. We are giving it to the kids as part of their Christmas presents. The final product isn't perfect, but it's perfectly imperfect and I like that it was "homemade".

I got a 6' tall wood from Home Depot, which I had them cut down to 5'6" (free service). I was starting the chart at 10" and I def didn't need an almost 7' chart. It had little dings on the sides, tops, and bottoms, but I think it adds a little character. 

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on paint so I went to Home Depot to see if they had any quart sized paint that they had mixed already, but ended up being the wrong shade so people didn't buy it. They sell these cheap, but the only colors available were either in the pea green or mauve family. Who would paint their rooms these colors?!? Anyway, I digress. I left without buying paint and decided to come back at another time. We had leftover white paint from painting the doors and trim before we moved into our house so I used that as my "primer". While that dried I decided to just use the left over paint from painting Parker's room. But I wanted to also use that for Parker's growth chart and I didn't want them to be the same color. Solution: mix Parker's room paint with a little bit of bright blue acrylic paint I already had for Avery's chart. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough. 

I Kevin measured out the growth chart inch by inch starting at 10" and going until 6'. According to our pediatrician, if Avery continues to grow like she has been she will be around 5'10" (like her Nana). I used a leaf pattern to mark the foot markers.  I'd like to say that I free handed this, but I'm not artistic what-so-ever so I drew leaves on a sheet of paper and after 5 10 tries I finally settled on a pattern that I liked. I laid the paper on top of the foot marker and using a dull pencil I traced over it - hard enough so that it would make an indentation on the wood (it's hard to see, but look closely at the pic above). After, I outlined it with pencil. I'm sure there's probably an easier way to do it, but this is what worked for me. 

Next I used brown permanent marker to go over the inch markers and the branches (the foot markers). I probably could have used paint pens, but the last time I used one, I had a hard time with it. Figured this was easier. Then I used green acrylic paint  for the leaves.  

I wanted to put birds on the growth chart and found one online that I liked after a Google search, but it wasn't for sale. I tried looking at local craft stores to see if I could find a similar bird, but couldn't find anything that I liked so I asked Kevin to make me something. We he decided to use an empty box of K-cups since we didn't have any other materials or tools that would work. Ghetto I know! lol 

Kevin suffered a minor injury cut... 

Here are my K-cup birds! Fantastic job, babe!

While the kids napped, I painted the birds using the same green acrylic paint that I used for the leaves and a purple one that I bought for another project, but never used. You can see the lines from the cardboard, but I'm ok with that. 

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So this post has been a draft for almost 1 month...why?!? Because I procrastinate and change my mind a million times. I got slightly freaked out that Christmas is NEXT WEEK. I had already decided last weekend to not use the birds (sorry, babe - I know you worked hard on them) and wanted to paint owls and use Avery's bedding as my inspiration. I drew the branches last week so all I had to do were the owls and leaves during nap time. It's almost done. Kevin just has to drill a couple holes at the top and I have to attach a ribbon. I'll post an updated pic once all that is done and we get it hung in Avery's room. 

Here is the final product!

Sorry about the horrible pic - it's hard to take a good pic of something so tall and skinny, even with my "real" camera. These pics by the way are from my iPhone. I tried to crop/zoom to see if it would make it better. Oh, and those 2 little owls...that's Avery and me. Cheesy I know! lol

Next project: Parker's growth chart! YIKES!!!! But I thrive under pressure and get more projects done when I'm rushed! BRING IT ON!!!