Baby Girl Ward was born recently (view pics of the cutie here!), so while I’m out making a survivor out of her, I’ve asked some amazeballs bloggers to visit! Today’s post comes from Rachel of Lupa & Pepi! This girl is skilled with a printing press. She’s also skilled at life. Take it away, Rachel!

Ciao!! My name is Rachel and I’m so thrilled to do a guest post for Lexy while she’s spending some QT with her new baby girl! Just to give you a little background on me — by day, I’m a paper goods designer and stationer, by night I can be found diving into some DIY projects! In light of Lexy’s little one, I thought it’d be fun to do some DIY growth charts! Moms are busy and don’t always have heaps of time at their fingertips so I have three options varying from 5 to 50 minutes in length — one of them will surely fit your schedule!

EASY

time – 5 minutes

Supplies

• Cloth or plastic 120″ tape measure
• Scissors
• Zots glue dots or other double-sided adhesive
• Washi tape
• Permanent marker
• Step stool

Directions

1. Using Zots or other double-sided adhesive, adhere the beginning of the tape measure to the base of your wall.

2. Stand on a step stool and adhere the other end of the tape measure to the top of the wall. Cut off excess.

2. Secure the tape measure with Zots one or two more times so that it does not sag or pull away from wall.

3. Use washi tape and permanent marker to mark your child’s height.

MEDIUM

time – 20 minutes

Supplies

• Cloth or plastic 120″ tape measure
• Scissors
• Zots glue dot or other double-sided adhesive
• Washi tape, various colors 1/4″ and 5/8″ widths
• Xacto knife
• Cutting mat
• Permanent marker
• Step stool

Directions

1. Adhere the beginning of the tape measure to the base of your wall and, using a step stool, adhere the other end of the tape measure to the top of the wall.

2. Using the tape measure as a guide, place the 1/4″ width washi tape on the wall from floor to ceiling.

3. Cut 1″ strips of the same color 1/4″ width washi tape and place it on the wall to mark each foot.

4. Cut 1/2″ strips of the 1/4″ width washi tape that is a complementary color and place it on the wall to mark each inch.

5. Use 5/8″ width washi tape and permanent marker to mark your child’s height.

DIFFICULT

time = 50 minutes

Supplies

• Paper rolls (e.g. for registers, calculators, adding machines)
• Sew Easy Stitch Piercer
• Sew Easy Stitch Piercer Cartridge
• Cutting mat
• Straight edge
• Measuring tape or ruler
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Embroidery needle
• Embroidery floss, various colors
• Scissors
• Markers or crayons
• Zots glue dot or other double-sided adhesive
• Step stool

Directions

1. Unroll a length of the paper roll. Press the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer into the beginning of the roll and, using a straight edge as a guide, firmly roll it along the length of the paper.

2. Using a pencil and a measuring tape or ruler, mark each inch with a line and each foot with an “x”. This will serve as a guide when sewing.

3. Thread the embroidery needle and, starting at the end, sew the paper using a modified* buttonhole/blanket embroidery stitch. Use the pierced holes as a guide to sew a pattern similar to a ruler —i.e. short tick marks for each 1/4″, medium length tick marks for each 1″ and long tick marks for each foot. Since the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer Cartridge pokes holes that are 1/4″ apart, I used the pierced holes to denote the short tick marks and then eye-balled double that length for the medium length tick marks and triple that length for the long tick marks.

4. Switch colors after sewing a foot of the paper.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have sewn approximately 7-8 feet of the paper.

6. Adhere the sewn paper to your wall with Zots or other double-sided adhesive and use markers or crayons to mark your child’s height.

*Because you’re working with paper and not fabric, you’ll need to be more delicate and probably can’t pull the needle and thread through multiple holes at one time. Alternatively, you could do this growth chart on a strip of fabric and use fabric markers to denote the child’s height.

And there you have 3 ways to make a DIY growth chart! Have fun and get creative with colors and technique. And you can even personalize it by marking the height of some odd objects like the length of the Statue of Liberty’s nose (4′ 5-1/2″) or the height of a Munchkin (3′ 8″)! Buon divertimento!

Congratulations, Lexy!! Can’t wait to meet your little one!

xo, Rachel

See more of Rachel’s projects and printed goods over at Lupa & Pepi!

photography by Lupa & Pepi