DIY Growth Chart

Every time I go to my sister's house, I'm envious of this little spot she has in her mudroom where she marks the boys' heights. It's so cute and original, written in whatever writing utensil she had available at the moment, with the names and dates for each measurement. It's a great tool to be able to see how the kids compare at a particular age, and my 5 year old nephew, Cash, gets so excited to see how much he's grown since he was 1, 2, 3, etc and to see how he compared to his little peanut of a brother, Briggs, at that same age. I wanted something like this...but I'm lacking a practical spot in my home that would accommodate such a thing.

I began searching personalized growth charts for Easton for his birthday - thinking I would get him one for himself that I could hang in his room, perhaps on the back of his door, etc. and loved the idea that it was portable, so it could move with him as he changed rooms, and if we ever move. A personlized growth chart is not ideal for using as a comparison with other kids, and heck, that means I'd need another when baby #2 rolls around.

Pinterest to the rescue! I came across this marvelous idea of a DIY growth chart and I was sold! Off to Lowe's I went to pick up a 1x8x6, some wood stain and a paint pen. I started by lightly sanding the wood, and wiping it down with a damn cloth to get off any of the sand particles. I applied two coats of dark walnut stain, letting it dry between coats. I brushed the stain on with a foam brush, and wiped most of it off with a rag to give it a vintage look.

Sorry it's not Sherwin Williams, Lia. :)

After letting it dry, (I gave it several days due to lack of time), it was time to make this piece of wood look like a ruler. Using a pencil and a ruler, I made 1 inch marks along the entire length of the board. In order to mimic the look of an actual ruler, I made the "quarter" lines (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1 inch marks) all 2 inches long, and the other lines (1/12, 2/12, 4/12, 5/12, 7/12, 8/12, 10/12, 11/12 inch marks) all 1 inch long. When this was done, I went over the lines with my paint pen. Also, I started my ruler at 6 inches, because I wanted to hang it on the wall so decided to start by ruler at 6 inches and hang it 6 inches off the ground. Depending on how you plan to display the growth chart, you may or may not need to do this.

As for the numbers, this was the tricky part for me. I tried printing the numbers off the computer, and tracing over them to make a small indent in the board, but it just wasn't working. So, I pulled out the handy dandy Cricut and some vinyl. After many trial runs, I landed on a font and size I was happy with (which I don't remember what they were), and cut it out on the vinyl. I took the shadow of the number, and laid it on the board, then colored inside the number with the paint pen. Note that when working with the shadow, you need to include the interior cuts of the number on 4 and 6, so that you don't just have one blob of a number.

There we have it. $17 dollars later, and I have myself a growth chart! And I found the perfect little spot for it in the entryway from the garage. I love it! And we just added Easton's 1 year measurements. I can't wait to see how he grows!

Pinteresting Idea - DIY Blog Party

Last week I linked up with a DIY Blog Party for some holiday decor inspirtation/motivation and I'm super excited to have more reasons to be crafty! So here's to week 1.

Dare to...be thankful!!

As I was putting away my Halloween decor and pulling out my fall/Thanksgiving decor, I realized I'm severly lacking decor for Thanksgiving. I don't have a good "fall" selection - everything is either Halloween or Chrismtas, with the exception of a few ceramic pilgrims from my grandma and a scarecrow my mom picked up for me last year. So while I have been on the lookout for a few more 'fall' things, I decided to try my hand, or Easton's to be exact,  at some Thanksgiving decor.

 

Yes, Easton is eating puffs off the floor. It was the only way I could distract him while I painted his hand. I had to do one finger at a time because all he wanted to do was put his hand in his mouth. This kid will do anything for puffs. 

Hating fingerpainting! I hope I didn't traumitize him for kindergarten.

This project was super easy. I used a 5x7 canvas, and bought several different colors of paint (red, orange, green, yellow and brown). I started by painting the palm of Easton's hand brown, and put that on the canvas. Next, I did each finger, one at a time, and each a different color. Before you press the fingers down, make sure you match up the palm every time so the fingers are lined up. You will also want to wait a few minutes between each fingers to let the previous paint dry. It actually took me two nights to do this because Easton was not very happy with me after 3 fingers so I figured I better give it a rest. When you've done the whole hand, use a skinny shapie to draw feet and eyes (I used a googly eye) and orange paint for the gobbler.

 The final product!

I am in love with this! I can't wait to display it year after year to remember Easton's first Thanksgiving!

Weekend Recap

I love weekends like this one. Not a whole lot of plans = no red and lots of blue!

Friday
Work
Dinner & Drag Queen Bingo for Jessica's birthday - so fun!

Saturday
Joann's for craft supplies
Craft day with my sister - need to do this more often. Click on the image below to view the pinterest original and step-by-step directions (a.k.a. save me from writing them out)

Sunday
Church with my sister
Catch up on some DVR shows
Hang with my boys

Pinteresting Ideas

I know I often complain about not having time to cook, clean or watch tv, but I do manage to find time for blogging and pinterest -- funny how that works! Here is a sneak peek of some of the crafts we've made - and I say we because Easton has helped. :)

This was super easy, and super cheap.

Supplies:
wood frame for $1 at Michaels
a small bottle of green paint for like .79 cents
 three packages of googly eyes ($2 each - I bought variety pack for different sizes)
about 1/3 yard of black ribbon
wooden letters that were like .19 cents each
a couple small foam bushes.

I think I spent a total of like $10. I started by painting the frame and letters green, the proceeded to glue the googly eyes on the frame. I started using a glue stick, but then switched to super glue because I wasn't sure how well the glue stick would hold on the wood. Once the eyes were all one, I wrapped the ribbon tightly around the bottom and glued it down on the back, and the used the hot glue gun to adhere the letters. Voila!  Now I just need to print some Halloween pictures.

Next up, family ghost feet! Check out Kalyn's page for step by step directions. I had a hard time capturing pictures in the making.  I still can't believe I convinced Bryan to participate. Here is the (almost) final product.

Last weekend we had an organized girl's craft night. Being a mom is a full time job and as in real life, we all enjoy breaks from work, so therefore my girlfriends and I were in need of a kid-free night out, and what better idea than to all make a craft together. It was a blast as always, and we walked away with new decor for our house. We decided to make a winter decoration that we saw on pinterest (where else!), and was again a super easy, inexpensive craft.

Supplies:
3 wine bottles (different shapes and sizes are good)
white spray primer
spray adhesive
epsom salt
silver sticks

Because there were several of us, we needed lots of wine bottles - check!

We opted to remove the labels. Not sure this is 100% necessary, but we thought it would look better - and it does. Next, spray the bottles with white primer. We sprayed half of all the bottles, let them dry, and then sprayed the other half. Once the primer is dry, spray the bottles with adhesive, and then roll them in the epsom salt.

Arrange bottles on a silver platter with accessories to your liking - I chose silver sticks from Michaels, silver beads and sparkly silver ornament. Small tea candles may be added....

And lastly, as I mentioned before, the Christmas countdown blocks. We are already counting down at our house!

That's all for now. Check back soon for new crafts that are in the works, assuming Easton cooperates.

Weekend Recap

I hate how quickly the weekends come and go. And even though we had an extra hour this weekend, it still went by too fast. Here's to hoping this time change doesn't mess with Easton's schedule too much! A quick recap of our weekend!

Friday
Work
Pick up dessert for Saturday night
Finish current pinterest project - thanks Kalyn, my final product below :)

Saturday
Pearl Party with Mom
Drop Easton and Cooper off at Grandma and Papa's
Craft night with the ladies - more on this coming soon!
Spend the night at mom and dad's

Sunday
Hang at mom and dad's
Family nap
Meal plan/grocery shop - thank you  hubby!
Laundry/change sheets
Easton's 7 month photos
October/Fall blog update
Relax - blogging/watching tv in bed

Pinteresting Ideas - Sign for E's Room

Along with the rest of the world, I have a pinterest obsession. :) What the heck did we do before pinterest? More importantly, what did we do with all of our TIME before pinterest? Perhaps pinterest (and blogging) is is to blame for my dirty floors and mountain high pile of laundry?

Now that I've said that, I'm not even sure this is a pinterest project. I originally saw this idea at Milford Memories this summer and thought "Hey, I could make that!" So I added it to my pinterest and then took the idea and ran with it while I was motivated.

Materials:
plywood, cut to size (mine was 27x24)
sand paper
contact paper
cricut machine
paint (2 colors)
small paint roller (2)
skinny masking tape

First things first, I had to determine what size sign I wanted. It was my brillant mother's idea to start by cutting a newspaper (she measures everything out with newspaper!) to the size I was thinking, and then cut the letters out on plain white paper for size (it is very important to label the letters with the font and size you used so when you go back to cut them out of contact paper, you know exactly what you need). I laid the letters on the newspaper to get an idea of what I was working with. After a few minor adjustments, we had it perfect.

I added a skinny strip of masking tape around all edges so that the edges would remain the background color.

You are safe to cut your plywood to size. My parents had the plywood on hand and my dad had a saw and was able to make the cut himself. Normally, I would have just gone to the hardware store. Lightly sand the plywood. Paint the plywood the background color (the color you want the letters to be).

This is where you would add the masking tape if you want. Lay out the letters on the sign to your liking (prior to removing backing). We (me and my sidekick, mom) were pretty precise on measuring, centering, etc. We made small markings of where the top and bottom of each letter was suppose to line up (you will not see these markings when you paint the top coat). Begin peeling the back of the contact paper, one letter at a time and press firmly to secure to the sign. Finally, take your top coat and roll it over the sign. Roll slowly in one direction (away from you) and be sure to watch for the letters to stick to the roller and lift. We had this problem and am not sure how it could have been avoided. It didn't effect the turnout of the sign at all - thankfully the idea is that the sign is suppose to look distressed and not be perfect. :) Once the paint dries, slowly and carefully peel up the contact paper letters.

Pin It

Ta~da!!! This sign is hung in Easton's nursery but will grow with him when he moves from his nursey to his big boy room -- that is, unless we have another baby boy someday. ;)

And let me brag for a moment that we've had a few people ask if we'd make them a sign -- if only I had the time.....