Posted on by wherethejourneytakesme

Creating >> ScrapHappy March

Hello to all the ScrapHappy followers if you have made it here. I hope you are not expecting a scrappy quilt – that might come later, but for the moment my contribution this month is more paper based and one that anyone can do quite easily.

I often collect a few wallpaper samples whenever I visit a DIY store – I find they are so useful for lining drawers, covering notebooks and making cards and collages, and they are free.

One design in particular that I found in B&Q really caught my eye. It is a design for a children’s room and I have had this sample piece rolled up in my scrap boxes for ages now not really knowing what to do with it.

I also had a few narrow lengths of foam core offcuts from another project so I put the two together and came up with the idea of making a height chart to record the height of my three grandchildren each time they come to stay. My girls always had their height measured and recorded on the edge of the broom cupboard door at granny’s house when they went to visit and over time, as they reached their teens, they completely overtook their little granny!

When granny died and we sold her house the marks had to be painted over (we did take a photo prior to this) but everyone was a bit sad. The one I have made is definitely portable so if we move we can take it with us.

This is the finished product – we fixed it about 18″ from the ground to give plenty of growing room.

To make it I stuck two lengths of foam core together with tape to make it long enough. I had to cut the width of the wallpaper down to fit the width of the foam core but the design of the tree lends itself very well to a height chart.

The wallper was stuck onto the foam core with double sided tape and then fixed onto the side of my linen cupboard in what has become the ‘children’s room’ with some of those removable heavy duty velcro strips.

We are just recording the name and the date with a mark on the tree trunk but you could also add actual measurements to the chart – it was fun and easy to make and the grandchildren love it.

Other  lovely ScrapHappy blogs to visit :-

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen, Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol, Preeti, Edith, Debbierose.

24 Replies to “Creating >> ScrapHappy March”

  1. Hello!!! That’s a brilliant and inspired use of the perfect wallpaper scrap.I’ve just updated this months #ScrapHappy to add your link to the list – welcome to the gang!

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  3. I don’t know how true it is but I think that I read that when the awful evictions were happening in Ireland they were allowed to take the lintel and door frame with them as it recorded all the heights and names of the family. I wish I had done something like that with bear.

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    1. The family wanted to do the same and take it with us but I think the new owner might have objected. It had all the grandchildrens heights recorded as well as the mums and dads and grandparents. I thought of using a door at home but then realised when we move we would face the same problem so a portable one is a good compromise.

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  4. Lovely idea, and the perfect use for that piece of wallpaper. My parents used to measure me the night before and the morning of my birthday, and *somehow* I always seemed to have grown an inch in the night! It was the kitchen doorway, in my case, and long gone…

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    1. Hello Kate – I have had a nice morning looking at what everyone has been making – everyone is so talented. It was nice to find a use for the wallpaper – I do have a bit of a collection and of handmade papers too.

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  5. Nice to meet you, Viv…I love the scrappy wallpaper – not all the scrapsters are fabric oriented, it’s lovely to see other scraps being used – like paper! I updated my list too!

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  6. Viv, that is really clever and a brilliant use of the paper. You said your next scrappy challenge might be quilt-based – I am sure I have seen patchwork height charts like this online.

    Just having a break from clearing up trimmings from a little box hedge, but this evening I am going to go through all the links you’ve shared. Already looking forward to it!

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    1. I really enjoyed my wander around the scrappy blogs – I had not come across most of them before as it was through Nanacathy and Wild Daffodil that I heard about the scraphappy group. I am not sure I could ever match their talents but it will encourage me to do something with all my scraps!
      A patchwork height chart would be lovely.

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  9. What a clever idea! I did a search for wall paper samples. I’ve searched for the ideal shelf liners with no success. Thanks for the new possibility.

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    1. Usually DIY stores are happy to give out samples and in some you can tear a piece off yourself – B&Q, The Range and Wilkos are more or less help yourself some of the others prefer to have an assistant to cut it for you.

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  11. What a splendid idea. I inherited in this house a cupboard door with the heights of the previous family. One day I shall paint it out, but not yet.

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  12. That is such a lovely idea. I remember all the marks on my grandparent’s wall where they’d measured my height as I was growing, happy memories.

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  13. I love this, what a great idea. I love that you have future proofed it by making it portable. We wrote onto the bathroom wall paper when we were children and my mum carefully removed it when they repapered the room she still has it in the loft somewhere. I will remember that you can get scraps of wallpaper from DIY stores, they would make great covers for notebooks, thank you for sharing that.

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