How to Make a Wood Growth Chart {tutorial}

Allison from HowDoesShe.com has worked her magic on a fantastic craft for you today!  Gone are the days when we would make a cut in the door frame to mark a child’s growth.   This wood growth chart is ideal for families who may not live in the same house forever.  Since they can be removed and taken down, they can be a beautiful keepsake and gift idea.

Wood Growth Chart!

What you need:

• 1 1x6x6 MDF Board (You can find these at the hardware store. They come in 8 foot boards, but just have the hardware store workers cut it down for you).
• White Paint
• A topper
• 4×4 square ‘Watch Me Grow’ – Black Vinyl in any font
• 2,3,4,5,6 2 inch numbers – Black Vinyl in any font
• Wood Glue / hot glue gun
• Tape Measure ‘r’ {{do you like the ‘r’ part? I’m claiming it as my new invented word}}
• Sharpie Marker
• Picture hanger. The saw looking thing on the back of frames that holds up pictures (found at the hardware store).

Ahhh so here’s the paint. It hasn’t been opened for a while. The swirls kinda look cool though.

Here are the toppers. I cut these beauties out with a band-saw. That band-saw is a cool tool BTW!

Simple shapes that are feminine or masculine.

If you don’t have a saw or just don’t want to use one, don’t worry you can find toppers at Michael’s Crafts for a buck!

I cut out the paper.

Mod Podge the paper on and sand the edges.

Wood glue your wheels and center of the flower on. I know {{I know}} I am using a hot glue gun, but I was out of my preferred glue of choice…wood glue. Use wood glue if you have it and if you don’t, use hot glue!

Grab your Tape Measure’r’. Lay it on the board. You want the bottom of the board to hit 15 inches. So the bottom of the board…the first mark will read 15 inches. You don’t need to start at zero! Mark with a pencil all the way up to 6 feet 3 inches. Unless you have an extra short or tall family.

I did one for a family whose husband was 7 feet 2 inches, so the bottom of the board was 20 inches and it went up to 7 feet 2 inches because the little boy had a good chance of being that tall too!!

Then take a straight edge and mark the lines. Be careful not to smudge the lines that were just drawn.

For the 2,3,4,5,6 marks…draw the lines a little longer. It guides you to know where to stick the numbers.

Here is the vinyl info:

The font: I don’t remember, but any font will do!

4×4- Watch Me Grow!

2,3,4,5,6-2 inch numbers

Apply your vinyl.

Another reason I love giving these…

When people move, they can take these growing memories with them.

Wall markings are hard to move:)

Attach your toppers with wood glue…I was still out of wood glue so I used my staple gun.

I wouldn’t use hot glue on this part or they will pop off after a while.

Done.

P.S. When you hang it, make sure you hang it at the right height, not from the floor.

Sincerely,

HowDoesShe.com is a site dedicated to finding out “How Does She?” by collaborating ideas on how to become the mothers, wives and world class women that we want to be!

Together, founders Alison, Shelley and Missy, have found yet another way to waste all the spare time theydo not have in collaborating all these ideas.

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