Monday, January 27, 2014

Growth Chart

I had Caitlin and her family for Christmas a few weeks ago. I made them a Growth Chart as their family gift. 

I found several tutorials via pinterest. Then I did what I usually do. Look at the picture and made up my own way to do it. :)

First thing I did was go to Home Depot and found pre-sanded wood. Conveniently they are sold by the foot. I decided that since Nick's family is tall, they needed a tall one. I bought a board that was 6'1". And then when it was hung 6 inches from the floor and it would be 6'7" total. Perfect!

I was going to paint the board, but Nick is a wood purist and painted wood offends him. :) So I stained  it with Minwax PolyShades in American Chestnut Satin. I've never really stained anything before, so I thought this would be a good practice project. 

Who knew that gloves would have been a good idea...or that water doesn't wash stain off things...like a porcelain sink and that my hands would turn super sticky when I tried to wash the paintbrush with water (thus the stain in the sink). Probably everyone. But in my defense...nowhere on the can did it say that it was oil based stain, or that gloves would have been a good idea. 

Thankfully Nick is an expert in staining, so when I realized the problem, I called him and he suggested nail polish remover. Thankfully I had some and dumped it everywhere. It worked pretty well. Eventually my hands returned to their normal color and non-stickiness. :)

So I started with a pretty piece of poplar and began staining.




I did two layers of stain. For the tick marks and numbers, I cut them out with my cameo out of white textured cardstock. The numbers are inked in silver ink to give them a bit more character. They are then modpodged on and then sealed with another layer of mod podge. Vinyl is a perfectly acceptable option, and one I considered (would have been faster and eaiser), but I was afraid of little fingers picking and peeling off the vinyl . So paper and glue it is!


All done! 

Here it is hanging up in their house, tucked in nicely behind the front door. And complete with measurements of the kids. :) On Rachel's 2nd Birthday, she measured 2'11"--she really tall!  


Thanks for reading!

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