Ruler Growth Chart

If you have little ones at home, you know they don’t stay little for long! As much as I wish my little one would stay little forever, it’s exciting to see him getting bigger and learning more. A great way to record growth for kids is a growth chart. Back when I was little, my dad recorded my height on the side of our shed, but we had to leave it behind when we moved. For my son, however, I wanted something a little nicer and something I could take with us if we ever move. With these simple steps, you can create a cute and functional, Ruler Growth Chart for your little one, too.

This chart is so easy to make I have made several of them. To show you step by step instructions for this project, I decided to make one for my sister-in-law and her two little ones.

The supplies you’ll need for this project is:

>One 1″ x 8″ x 6′ board (I just get a nice pine one from the lumberyard)

>Stain or paint for the board

>Pencil, pen and permanent marker

>Ruler

>The numbers 1 – 6 printed out in the font and size you want

>Letters for the name, and/or other decor for the finishing touches

First trim your board to 6′. If you have a board this length already, great! However, if you need to buy a board, you might have to buy an longer board and trim it or have it cut at the lumberyard. Then do a quick sand of the whole board to clean it up and smooth the edges.

Them decide on a stain or paint color. I used Minwax wood stain in Special Walnut. I recommend using a lighter color because the markings and numbers for the ruler will be black.

Once the stain is dry, grab your pencil and ruler (preferably a wooden or metal one), and start marking. You want to mark each inch with a small dash. Starting at the 6 inch mark on your wooden ruler, going up to the 6 ft mark. The reason you want to start at the 6 inch mark at the bottom of the board is because you will hanging the board 6 inches of the floor when its finished. This will leave a 6 inch space at the top of your board for decorations.

Now turn your wooden ruler and use the straight edge to draw your measurement marking with a permanent marker. I made each foot marking 4 inches long, each half-foot marking 3 inches long, each quarter-foot marking 2 inches long and the rest of the markings 1 1/2 inches long. Make sure you keep those lines straight!

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Now for the numbers. If you have a vinyl cutter you can cut numbers out and just stick them on. I don’t have one, so I have to do it the old school way. I use Microsoft Word to print the numbers out. Experiment with fonts and sizes until you get the ones you want, then separate them.

Now use your pencil to shade the wrong side of the paper, flip it over and line it up where you want it. Then trace the outline with a pen. When you take the paper away, you should see a light pencil outline of the number. Fill it in carefully with a permanent marker. Repeat for each number.

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Don’t forget to put a hanger on the back, I use a soda can tab and just screw it into the wood near the top. Now you have a basic ruler growth chart. You can leave it plain like this, but I love to personalize it to whomever I’m making it for.

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I like to buy letters and crafting stuff when its on sale at places like Joann’s and Michael’s. I already had these poster letters and scrabble letters than I had gotten off amazon for other projects to use. You can use any kind of lettering, or just paint the name on with a stencil. And the top can be a saying or an image that goes with the nursery. The possibilities are endless!

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This one is my son’s Ruler Growth Chart, I still haven’t decided on what to do on the top! You can see that I’ve hung it 6 inches off the floor and the arrows where I’ve marked his measurements.