The Giant Ruler!

Here's another great idea I got from Pinterest: The Giant Ruler!

I have always liked the idea of tracking kids growth over the years with markings and dates on a wall or door in the house. In fact, the house we live in had exactly that on the edge of one of the doors. It made me sad to think that it was left behind when they moved out. When I found this on Pinterest I was so excited because it's a fun way to track our kids growth over the years and if we move we can take it with us! I was hoping to get this done before Josh's 1st Birthday but just didn't get around to it until now. He hasn't gotten any taller since his 12 month appointment so I guess it didn't matter much anyways.

Here's what you'll need to make your very own Giant Ruler:

1x10 Wood Board
Wood Stain (in your choice of color)
Poly Wood Finish
Paint brush
Old rag
Tape Measure
Ruler
Permanent Marker
Sawtooth Picture Hanger w/nails

Since the weather has been so warm here lately I was able to stain and finish my board in the garage, no problems. It did take a little longer to dry because of the lower temperature than if I had done it in the summer. First I applied the stain with the brush, let it sit on the wood for about 3-5 minutes then wiped off the excess stain with the old rag.

After doing this to both sides of the board, per the directions on the can I had to allow it to dry a minimum of 8 hours before applying the finish. After 8 hours I applied the first coat of finish and let it dry for 2 hours then applied a second coat. Once it was fully dry and no longer tacky I brought it inside to measure to make the ruler lines.

 I wanted to hang the ruler about 6 inches off the floor so I had to measure and make my lines accordingly. Doing this also meant my ruler would go a few inches beyond 6 feet which is good in case we have some tall children! Now the line making begins. This took the longest by far.

I first marked with a pencil and then went back over with permanent marker along a straight edge. I also wanted the whole ruler effect so I made my foot lines 5 inches long, 1/2 foot lines 4 inches long, 1/4 and 3/4 foot lines 3 inches long and all the other lines were 2 inches long.

Ironically I couldn't find my real ruler for this project so I had to make a straight edge out of the top of a marker box. I found a great Sharpie for this project too. It had a chisel edge and a pointed edge, it was perfect!

Finally got all the lines done now to find some numbers that I like and print them out to trace.

These ones look good...

Only took 3 tries to get them to the size I wanted! Time to cut them out and place them on the board to trace.

I stuck them on with double sided tape, traced them with the pencil then went back over them with the Sharpie.

Numbers are all colored in. Now it's time to hang it. I chose to use a sawtooth picture hanger on the back of mine to hang it on the wall.

Put the nail in the wall and up it goes...

The bottom is rather loose and swings a bit if Josh touches it so I thought about what I could do to fix it and I'm going to pick up some of the 3M Command picture hanging tabs to help stabilize it.

Just couldn't wait to measure the little guy! Only 2' 4".

Hope this post can help others make their very own giant ruler!

Many Blessings,

Leslie