Growth Chart - Ruler style

I got this idea after looking through Lemon Tree Creations. I found this blog a few weeks ago, and it is amazing, there are so many things that I would love to try out for my home, especially the empty frame galleries. I especially like their vintage/shabby chic take on many of their crafts.

This is my first craft I have posted on this blog, and I wanted to make it something useful. The inspiration comes from this post on the Lemon Tree Creations blog. I saw it and immediately thought "I must make this".

When we moved into our house we were left with a huge pile of woods and off cuts from the landlord, there was paint in the garage, and I had left over paint from other things. The only thing I had to buy was some black paint to do the numbers....making the total cost $2.99! Love, love, love making things when they don't cost me.

I cut the wood to 150cm, I was going to start off at 40cm and end at 170cm, so this gave me around 20cm to put the words in at the top. I didn't sand down the face of the wood, I think that having the grain, and the lumps and bumps just makes it more unique, the only edge that was sanded is the one that I cut (well my step Dad cut it, and it wasn't quite right, so I sanded it).

A while ago when I was painting my Son's drawers, I bought some magnetic paint. This is some pretty nifty stuff. It works as an undercoat, so you can still have things any colour that you want, and it will be magnetic. The tin says to do at least 2 coats of this stuff to have the best magnetic hold. So I went ahead and painted 2 coats. Another great thing about this paint is that it goes on a dark silver, and then dries grey, so there is no need for guessing if the paint is dry because it is fairly obvious (and it dries pretty quickly). Before I started with the top coat, I got a magnet from the fridge and tested, 2 coats was the right amount.

Magnetic Paint - Drying

After letting the magnetic paint dry, I got into the tin of white. This stuff looked like it hadn't been used in ages, it took a lot of mixing to get it to come together again. I painted one coat, and left it to dry... after not really having to wait for the magnetic paint to dry it felt like I was waiting forever for this to dry. After that dried, I put another coat on, and left it to dry. I left it at 2 coats because it didn't feel to me like it needed any more.

After the last coat dried, I took out my tape measure and got measuring. I measured out every centimetre and at every 5 and 10 put longer lines. I printed out numbers between 50 & 170, and the words 'Watch me Grow'. Then, using the pencil transfer technique that is on this post on Lemon Tree Creations, I transferred them to the correct places. I then got my black paint out and painted the numbers and letters on. I realised when I was doing this that I really need some decent small paintbrushes. I had cheaper ones and they were just horrible, there was a few times I needed to stop, wipe off, and redo the numbers.

Without Words

My helper

Finished

I think it looks a little bare, and am thinking of adding something blue to it, purely because I have some blue paint. What do you think?

The last thing I need to do now though, is find a place for it to hang. Although it does look good next to the guitar, I'm just not sure it's the perfect spot for it. I also need to get some photos and use the magnets to put them in the right spots.

Until next time everyone have a great day.