Wooden Growth Chart

For mother's day last year, I made my mom a growth chart to track her grandkid's heights on.  It was made out of canvas - check it out here.

Ever since then, I have intended to make a growth chart for myself.  My kids kept asking if they could measure themselves.  Then, after we had our 3rd daughter, my husband was saying he thought it would be fun to compare their heights at certain ages.  So, I finally grabbed a piece of scrap wood and made a quick one for myself!

I cut vinyl with my Silhouette to use as a stencil.  I made a mark on the left side of the wood at every inch, at the edge of the wood and 1 inch from the edge.  I decided I wanted to stencil only the odd numbers.  I lined the left side of the number up with the mark I made 1 inch from the edge.  The large numbers (marking each foot) were 3 inches from the edge. 

I dabbed a little black paint onto each stencil and then peeled off the vinyl when it was dry.

I used a ruler and a paintbrush to paint the lines.  It was an easy way to measure the length of the line, and paint it nice and straight.  I used the pencil marks I had already made to know where to paint the lines.  The lines at the odd numbers were shorter, and the lines in between (representing even numbers) were a little longer. 

Luckily, I was able to look at their little blue immunization booklets to get their heights at various ages.  I used my $1 alphabet stamps from the craft store, and a brown ink pad, to print their names and ages at the correct heights. 

I realize that it is not as tall as you usually see them.  I only had a 4 foot piece of scrap wood...but since my babies came out at 20 inches anyway, I figured I could start at 22 inches and it would still work :)  It is now hanging in the girls room, and it really is fun to compare their heights!

So, it's never too late to make one - and I think our kids will love looking at it in years to come!