E Baby's Growth Chart

From the moment we found out Elliot was a girl, I knew I wanted as much of her nursery to be custom as possible.  I knew the general idea of how I wanted her growth chart to look, but the details just wouldn't form in my head. Finally, about the time we found out we were moving to Louisiana is when I really knew how it would look, but because of lack of space and desire to do anything, I kept putting it off.  Now that we are back in Texas and things have calmed down a bit, I've finally had a chance to work on and finish this little project!

First, I ordered 4"x1/2" MDF numbers from SJA Wood Design.  If I had to do it over again, I would get the nicer wood, but the quality of what I got is perfectly fine and you can't beat about $1.00/each!  I ordered the numbers at 10:00 on Tuesday morning and by 2:00 that afternoon I got an email saying that my order had shipped.  Seriously, it was THAT quick! On Thursday, I got this box...

How cute is that?!  I painted the numbers the bottom color of Elliot's room and let them dry over night.

Next, I painted a 6'x7" board the same color as her dresser and chest.  It's Polar Bear white...or something like that (Martha Stewart).

When I was putting the numbers on the board to figure out where they went, it just didn't look right...it was too bare.  I decided I wanted a damask background and used my cricut and the Damask Decor cartridge to cut out vinyl to use as a stencil.

Once I figured out where on the board I wanted the damask (I put one behind each number), I applied the vinyl on and painted in the stencil with the top color of Elliot's room (Spring Melt - Martha Stewart).

How sweet is this damask?  I'm not really sure why I chose the birds, but I love them.  The more I was doing the stencils, the more they reminded me of my sweet Grandmom...she was an excellent gardener and LOOOOOOVED birds!  Next, I glued the numbers to be centered on the stencil..

...and I decided it was still in need of a little something. Soo...I took just the little birds from the damask, painted them between each number at the 6" mark, and ended up with this!

I really love how it turned out and hope Elliot appreciates it when she's older.  I plan to write her a little note on the back of the board to go with how tall she is, that way she'll have a little something that shows our thoughts and feelings of her growing throughout the years!

I went ahead and marked when she was born... 

...and when she turned one...

And here is the finished product...

(You can't tell because of the flash, but I did the birds between all the numbers (even the 4 and 5)!

This took me a guhzillion hours to do and I fully understand that E Baby will HATE it by the time she's twelve, but hopefully when she's a bit older, she'll learn to love it. :)

What do you do to measure your little one? Do you have a growth chart or do you use the door frame? I love the idea of using the door frame, but thought it would be impolite to leave the next owners of our house with an empty door jam when we move! 

I've got a couple more projects to share with you within the week that I'm pretty excited about!

Until then...

Jill