Tape Measure Growth Chart

We finally got new pictures of his tape measure one year after I originally posted,...he's getting so big and its fun seeing how much he's grown! So enjoy this post from the archives!

I had a special birthday request from a very special birthday boy last year. My nephew, Noah, really wanted me to paint him something...he is very into anything construction and tools so we decided on a tape measure. I thought that we better make it useful so it was decided we would do a tape measure growth chart - not a ruler, mind you- a tape measure. I showed him pictures of giant wooden rulers and he dissed them flat out. So a tape measure it was, which meant I had nothing to go off of except, you guessed it...a tape measure!

What do you think! Do you think I pulled it off?

I really wanted this to be as accurate as possible- although simplified for sanity sake.

Originally I wanted the metal part of the tape measure to be at the top, but my husband convinced me that wasn't accurate AND my nephew would notice! lol!

I used a long piece of reclaimed wood and a hodge-podge of yellow paints to do the base coat.

I then used self made template to paint the "1F-6F" marks and painted them in using black paint- leaving the number the base coat color.

For the lines I measured my six inch, one inch, and one foot marks on a painters stick so I could whizz along the board marking them off. I passed on paint for the actual lines and opted instead for black permanent marker- way neater and crazy fast! I also decided to add Noah's name (an afterthought that you can see I had to fix) in red...a much debated decision since I know he loves John Deere green, but I chose red to stay accurate.

The metal part of the tape measure is a base coat of gray and  a second coat of metallic silver. The rivets are actually cabinet door pulls. I drilled holes and shoved them in...in fact I didn't even glue them because I couldn't get them back out! I think its my favorite part of the whole thing!

He loved it...even if he did beg grandpa to go find a tape measure to so he could make sure I had painted it correctly! Ha ha! Thankfully I did and got a passing grade!

Love that kid!

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