Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Ruler Growth Chart

Dearlilli_ruler_feb2012_rect540

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I saw this ruler growth chart in pinterest and knew it was perfect for our fam.  I would like to think we will live this this house forever but that is highly unlikely, so marking the babies height on a wall somewhere wasn't an option for us. I wanted something that could easily be removed and taken with us to our next home. I saw this on pinterest and then began googling tutorials.  I found that people were kind of doing it their own way.  I didn't really find an easy way, besides using a cricut to cut the numbers and lines.  I decided to knock this out while the babies slept on Sunday.
What I forgot was my cricut supplies were in little man's room and I wasn't willing to risk waking him.  So I came up with my own method for competing this bad boy.  So here it goes

After a long, way too detailed, debate with hubby about what kind of board I needed, we finally settled for a small one...1/2" x 6" x 6'.

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Oh and the rest of my supplies:

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Another must have is a FAN!  This Florida heat has gotten CRAZY!  I had to get my little fan and I still was having to wipe the sweat out of my eyes, gross right!?

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First thing I did was stain.  Actually the very first thing i did was have hubby put the D hooks on the back to hang it with.  I wanted that part done before he went to work because I didn't trust I could do that myself.

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Then, I brushed on my stain and then wiped it with a paper towel.  Two reasons for doing this: 1) I wanted it to be lightly stained and 2) keeping it from being saturated helped it dry faster and I wanted this complete before the babies woke.

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I did two coats of stain because the first was a little too light for me.

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Once my stain was dry I took the tape measure and marked off every inch.

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Then I decided what I wanted my ruler to start at.  I didn't want it sitting right on my base board because then the ruler would end right at six foot and what if just maybe little man was over six foot?! For baby girl, she could model one day maybe.  So I decided I would start at 6" instead of zero wonky board would end at 6'6". Let's just hope they aren't over six foot six inches!


After my markings were made I decided I wanted two lines that were an inch long and one line that was two inches long, so that would be my pattern.  So I went thru and made every two lines two inches long and the rest one inch.  The square really helped with this step, I highly recommend using one.

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Then I counted off my numbers every foot, duh right?! I sketched my numbers roughly and the babies woke...

 

But that's ok I kept working and they "painted" water in the driveway.

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Always smiling for that camera.

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She had more fun “painting” little man got in trouble because after a few short seconds of “painting” he decided it was boring so he began painting his sister’s hair.  A couple concerns here: is this any sign of his future career?  Let’s hope not.  Also, thankfully the “paint” they were using was only water but poor baby girl was soaked!

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Then I measured to make sure all my numbers were about two inches tall…again using the square.

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And the hard part. Painting.


I took a really thin paint brush and drew my lines.  That wasn't so bad.

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Then I did the number "1".  Pretty easy!


Two, five, and six were the worst!  But they still turned out ok.


I got hubby to measure six inches off the ground and we put two finishing nails in the wall and there she hangs!

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(I’m not sure where that odd shadow came from, sorry!)


I'm very happy with how it turned out, especially for not using my cricut.  I'm so excited to start graphing the babies height. And the coolest part to me is I will be able to keep this.  I can take it down when we move, put it in the attic to show the grandchildren one day...so special!!


I've been busy with a few other small projects but I will have to get to those later because right now I'm prepping for July 4th I'm so excited we have planned some fun activities for the babies and going to watch fireworks. Then this weekend we have packed fun times too...love having my little family!  Thank you God for blessing us So much.  And especially thank you for this beautiful country we love in and all those who have fought and are continuing to fight for us and our freedom.  We are so lucky to be so blessed.

God bless America and happy birthday USA!

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