Growing Tree Growth Chart

  I'm making a Growing Tree Growth Chart for my cousin's baby girl's 1st birthday. I got a 24"x48" canvas for an awesome price at Hobby Lobby.  My cousin wanted this to be as eco-friendly as possible, so I got acid-free paper, some is recycled, a cotton canvas with an acid-free dye, eco-friendly, non-toxic glue, natural jute cord, cork for the tree knots instead of wood and I tried to re-use as many materials as I could instead of buying new ones- I am also going to use re-used cardboard boxes and create a box so that I don't waste another box. I had initially thought of making the tree knots as labels for her age, height and the date of measurement, but I am using little wooden birds instead and will keep the knots as 3-D decoration instead.
  At the end I will put in a detailed list of what everything is and how it was done. All photos at this point are from an i-Phone so they are not the greatest quality but when all is said and done I will get some better photos with my Nikon. 

I'm only part of the way through and changes happen every moment- more to come!



This is the sketching phase to create a layout and see how everything will have to fit. 

 I started to glue tissue paper down relatively carefully - there are still wrinkles but it's flat in most areas, but I like that texture.  I then created the tree trunk with patterned paper and ripped it into 2"x3" pieces and glued it on to look like bark. I crinkled some pieces to give it some texture.

I have finished the sky (I may still do a blue wash over it to give it a good cover, but I'm not sure yet).  The tree is almost done, but I still have to finish the branch.  The owl is now complete.  The bird houses are going to be picture frames.  I'm deciding between the two knots right now - one made of wood and one of cork.  The biggest thing to do now is the leaves of the tree and I couldn't decide on what to do so I'm working on it........

It's really coming along now and I'm very pleased with it! I added the mushrooms and completed the picture frames.  I painted the birds and still have to add the label areas on them - these birds will be used as height markers - they are not fixed on the canvas now (nor will I ever fix them on but I will attach something to the back so they can be fixed to the canvas whenever a measurement is made).  I started the tree top and like the way it's coming, but of course, still more work to be done!!

At this point I am working mostly on the tree top (the leaves) and finishing up on the details.  There are a lot of little details to finish before it is totally done. 

Here is a pretty good picture of the finished product.  I'm really happy with the way it's turned out and am so excited to ship it out! I tried to make it pretty "1-year-old-proof " and it's hard to rip anything off besides the flowers, which are a little more delicate.  I love the way the picture frames turned out and it's pretty easy to change the pictures out - and you have to admit, Cedar is a beautiful little girl!!!
On my next post I will include a more detailed "list" of what things are and how they were done.