Growth Chart Tutorial

Better late than never! I've had this little idea in my head for 3 whole years! I'm tellin' ya- I'm a world class procrastinator! :) So sad since it was such an easy project to do, but like I said better late than never!

So here we go..

Supplies:
The simplest growth chart vinyl you can find. 
6' 1x6
Paint
Cute paper numbers
Modge Podge or spray adhesive

Start with finding your supplies...
Make yours or the one I ordered was from here, but I don't think she's selling the actual vinyl anymore, you can find more here, here, or here. It can be difficult to find a basic chart since there are so many with cute embellishments, in fact I didn't find any... I had one with just numbers and the ruler and cut the numbers off.  (anyone want my vinyl numbers!?)  With the links I provided, I would try to contact the seller and see if they would do a custom one for you- it may be cheaper that way too. :) Wow... that was a novel on something that was supposedly simple ;) That's probably the hardest part. :)

The rest should be pretty self-explanatory. :)

1.  Paint your board and let it completely dry.  You don't have to wait the 6 months or use your board to help you pick blackberries and then repaint it and wait another month like I did.  :) It will probably dry in a couple hours.

2. Line up your tape measure next to your board.  (Hopefully your carpet isn't as horrible as mine... dis-gust-ing!) Ignore the vinyl on there- we'll get to that part soon.  For now, just put your tape measure next to your board.

You can decide for yourself but I started mine at 1' to allow my board to be tall enough for my bound-to-be tall children.

See... not joking, my board goes up to 7' not that I'm expecting my children to be that tall, but since I measure up at 5'10" and the hubby at 6'5" I figured we'd better leave enough room just in case. :)

3.  Apply the vinyl

Find something within arm reach to make sure the first dash on your vinyl lines up straight.  A ruler would suffice.

Begin applying the vinyl like so...

Peel off the transfer tape which can be a little tricky.  I found the best method was to pull up to the next dash and use my bone folder to press the dash to the board.


Continue until all of your vinyl is applied. 

4.  Add the numbers

I used 7 different coordinating papers from my stash and fed them through the cricut machine.  I used Plantin Schoolbook "Shadow" for my numbers.  They ranged anywhere from 3 1/4" to 5" I wanted them to be odd sizes, just play with it until you think it looks great! If you don't have a fancy die cutting machine you could easily freehand it or print numbers and use them as a stencil.   

Here's a closer look at the numbers...

5.  Glue numbers on. 

I attempted to use spray adhesive, but wasn't a huge fan.  I will most likely used modge podge to fix them. 

And that's it you're done! Stand back and admire your work. :)

Almost forgot logistics...

1.  Hanging the board. 
To hang your board I will attach a ribbon to the back with heavy duty staples and to prevent it from swinging I will use command strips along the board.  Make sure you hang the board at the correct height, the bottom of mine will be 1' off the ground.

2.  Charting Growth
If you use a darker color as I did, I will be using cute circle stickers to mark height.  You could simply change the paint color so you could write directly on the board. 

Enjoy!

Children's Train Wall Art

To say my son LOVES trains is a serious understatement.  His life revolves around them.  Here's my attempt at some digital artwork for his room. 

I love it! It's fun, whimsical, and just what I pictured!

More Letter Art

Speaking of Letter Art, my sister and I were feeling a little nutty and created this beauty for my dad's upcoming birthday. Totally 100% appropriate for my dad!  We thought we were pretty hilarious, the hubby not so much.  Deep down he knows he loves it :) At least he better because this will be his I-hate-commericalized-Valentine's-Day-so-we-small-gift-each-other-just-before-Valentine's-Day-Gift! I had them printed out at costco on a 5x7 photo and will frame it- they'll make a great classy, but not classy, fun decor item for the bathroom, office, or man cave. :)

And please feel free to download one for yourself or the goofball in your fam! Just right click and save the file. Enjoy!

Be sure to click here for details on inspiration and how to make your own.

Photo's used in this creation were found in Leo Reynold's Flikr Photostream

Family Letter Art

I instantly fell in love with this project by Amy of My 3 Monsters found on a guest post at Under the Table and Dreaming. 

So a visit from my sister and several months later, I finally completed mine.  They are SO fun! Leo Reynold's photostream is nothing short of amazing.  I could have, oh wait I DID, spend hours browsing through the vast array of photos.  And how generous of him to share his photographs. (Be sure to visit the copyright info if using his photos, basically you are free to share and remix the work under the following conditions... Attribution, non-commerical, and share alike!)

Absolutely, positively LOVE it!!! I just ordered it as a 16x20 canvas and can't wait until it shows up! Hooray! 

Amazon Sweet Deal

Have you all heard of

LivingSocial?

They are one of the many sites out there nowdays offering a "daily deal" which comes to your inbox every morning.   You can personalize your location so you can get great deals near the city you live in.  You can also set the settings so you DON'T get daily deals in your inbox every morning if you're overloaded with "junk mail." But this is definitely one you don't want to miss out on!

Today's Deal is a $20 Amazon gift card for $10, but if you sign up through this link you should get $5 in deal bucks, which means you can get $5 off another daily deal!
**edited, they must have realized how great of a deal it really was, you sadly can no longer use the $5 in deal bucks on this deal, but $20 for $10 on Amazon is still a seriously sweet deal- plus $5 off something in the future!**

 

Are you still here, still reading? If so, stop and run now before they run out. 

And to be totally fair and honest, I will also get $5 in deal bucks when any of you purchase the deal AFTER using this link to sign up.  So help yourself and share it with your friends as well so you can get more deal bucks!

The Real Deal: A Doll House

Remember this guy? I made him during "snowmageddon" when I was snowed in at home (thankfully with power) by myself with 2 toddlers, without a computer or tv, and a hubby who's flight couldn't get in for almost a week. If you're really bored you can revisit it here.

This baby withstood the test of time and children... it was sturdy, fun and cheap.  But then we moved. Sadly it didn't make the cross country cut.

So I decided it was time for the real deal...

Thank you google for finding me this wonderful website.  Go look NOW!

http://www.letsbuildadollhouse.com/

There are some amazingly talented peeps out there and it's like there's a whole little culture out there of doll house fanatics... I love it! I am by no means as talented as some of the amazing doll housers (great word huh?!) out there!  I'm merely dabbling in a culture and moving on. :)

This little diva just turned 2 and the little princess in the background just turned 3, and they both deserved a great doll house.

So doll house they got!

Maddies...

And Hallies...

Wanna make your own? While time consuming- it's easier than you think! So head on over to Let's Build a Doll House and make a plan.  I don't want to call this a "tutorial" because I most definitely followed the plans found on the Let's Build a Doll House site, but I'll share my process and experiences with you here.  Make sure you visit the Let's Build a Doll House site for all the details. 



Head on over to Let's Build a Doll House and print off the cut plan. 

I then headed to my local-not-so-local home depot with kids in tow.  We were all excited!!  I threw the kids in the "car cart" (Thank you Home Depot, you are brilliant! Why do all stores not have these!?) grabbed 2 3/16" sheets of plywood (because I was making 2, if you only make 1 doll house you'll only need 1 sheet), found an always willing big orange employee and showed him the plan I had drawn up on graph paper.  We brainstormed and came up with a great cut plan.

So while he cut, I wrote...

The next day I put the kids to bed and began my work. 

I measured and drew lines. Angles for the roof, guidelines for the windows, and the doors.  The instructions are all laid out in the plans found here and here. This part was time consuming, but worth it for even measurements.  You'll have lines all over your plywood, but that's ok you'll paint it soon enough.

Next, I recruited some help, drilled holes to begin windows, learned how to use a jig-saw, got booted from using the jig-saw because I was too slow, and cut out all windows and doors.

You'll take your 1/2" molding and use wood glue and some heavy duty staples.  Our doll house differs here a little than what Jennifer shares on her site.  We added a strip on the bottom for extra stability when assembling the house since the houses would soon be at the hands of 2 toddlers. 

We then began to assemble the house.  Wood glue, brad nailer, and heavy-duty staple gun were our best friends and it's much easier if you have 2 sets of hands to assemble. You could probably do it by yourself with a few clamps, but WAY easier with another set of hands- so do what you gotta do and get a helper there!

Add sides to bottom, followed by the front to the sides

Then add middle floor, any room dividers, and finally the top floor

We used a lid and ruler to create the shape of the roof and cut it out with the jigsaw.  Then attached it with our trusty glue and nailer.

I then painted the floors, which would probably be much easier to paint before assembly- so learn from my mistake.  Next add trim, you can use either Popsicle sticks or better yet balsa strips.  Most definitely paint these prior to gluing in.

Paint your beauty.

Next step was to add the shingles.  Grab your huge box, were talking 300 Popsicle sticks huge, of large Popsicles, pop in a good movie or 2 and begin cutting the sticks into about 5 equal pieces.  You'll want to use a pretty heavy duty pair of scissors- I used kitchen shears, and boy did my hands hurt! Yikes!

And that was even with alternating between cutting and gluing.  I used a hot glue gun to attach the shingles to the roof.  I found it worked best to do a glob of glue for each shingle and I did a row of about 4-6 at a time and then quickly attached the shingles before the glue dried.  Make sense? No? Let's try again... glue a row of globs on the roof, then attach shingles quickly before glue dries.  Don't worry too much about the strings, clean off what you can and the spray paint with disguise the rest. 

Tape off your house and spray paint the shingles.  Then enjoy your rockin' real deal doll house!

Next step- better furniture...

Whew! If you made it this far I'll add the disclaimer that I started this post way back in September! Wow.  So if this post doesn't flow well- that's why!

Love it, Hallie loves it, and the post is finally done- I'm a happy camper! :)



Checkin' My List

As my son has so excitedly been saying lately, "I'm on the NAUGHTY list!" Thank you Classic Christmas cd for teaching my child to be excited about being on the naughty list... I think we need to have a chat about what the naughty list actually means! ;)

When it comes to December's To-do list, I'm pretty sure I've made the naughty list.  There's so many things to do and I haven't started a thing!

Does your to-do list look like this?

No? Well mine doesn't either anymore, I've thankfully moved on to a nicer, more crisp notebook which will soon be destroyed as well!

Well I'm ready to start checking stuff off my list! Yes... it really looks like this, see all those lonely boxes!? I have SO much left to do!

Thank you Shutterfly for making my life a little easier! Have you heard about their 2010 Holiday Card collection promotion? No? Well seriously jump on over here and sign up! You have until this Friday to register. 

So not only will I be checking off "Order Christmas Cards" thanks to Shutterfly's adorable line of Christmas Photo Cards I'll be doing it in style!

Look at some of these... so fun!

I'll also be crossing off 2 gifts! Next on the list is a great personalized gift- Photo Calender for the Grandparents of the fam. Can't go wrong with pictures of the grandkids right!? But shhh... don't tell, we can't spoil the surprise. :)

And last but definitely not least I'll finally be crossing off the mound of Thank you's I'll need to write after the holidays with Shutterfly's great selection of photo cards. 

This post is part of the Shutterfly 2010 Holiday Photo Card Promotion. See details here.