Rapunzel Tower Growth Chart With Pictures

One Week before christmas I still had no idea what I could give to my a few week old niece. Since she was the second child their parents had enough of clothes and she got a lot of stuffed animals, so I needed something else.

A friend told me of a Growth Chart she made herself a few years ago. Nice idea I thought and while watching the trailer of "Tangled" I got an idea which theme I would like for the Growth Chart I'm going to build (thought this would be a nice idea for a girl):

Rapunzel

The Idea is to make a Growth Chart looking like the Rapunzel Tower. The Tower needs windows where their parents could add a picture of her at the specifice size. On the top there is a windows with a picture of her with the long golden hair.

Step 1: Step 1: What You Need

So before you start you should think about the items you need for this project. I got most of the items from some kind of dollar shop here in germany. Some of the items you can also find on Aliexpress and other sites, so I try to include some links.

So what you need is:

A board
- I used one I found in the basement. Should be around 120cm long and 15-25cm wide
Another bigger board for the roof of the tower
Acrylic Colors (Dollar Store, Aliexpress)
- Grey for the Tower
- Red for the Roof
- Green for the Flowers/Plants
- Any other color for your own ideas :)
Small picture frames(Aliexpress Set1, Aliexpress Set2)
Mini Blackboards(Aliexpress)
Arrows(Aliexpress)
Some yarn (Aliexpress)
- yellow for the hair
- green for the plants
artificial flowers (Aliexpress)

Step 2: Preparing the Board

First thing to do is preparing the Board.

I found a good board in the basement. You can also go to the hardware store and buy a board which is used for a fence or the balcony.

My board had a length of 120cm. The tower will be fixed to the wall later and there will be around 40cm betweent the tower and the floor. When the kids starting to walk they will also be bigger than 60cm, so you don't need anything lower.

I wanted to add a roof to the tower so I got another bigger board, so the roof is wider than the tower.

Plane and sand the boards.

After this it's time to paint the board. I mixed black and white to get grey since I didn't had this color and painted the big board with this on the front and sides. For the roof I found a nice red color.

To connect the roof and the Tower i used some wooden plugs and glued them together.

Step 3: Preparing Some Details

Some details have to be prepared before you can add them to the board.

I painted the wooden letters with purple color so they can dry and I can add them later to the tower.

If you like you can add some structure to the tower. I used some stickers, fixed them on the tower board and painted them so they had the same color like the tower. I only used one since I had many other details and thought more would be too much.

Step 4: Position of Decoration

Before fixing the Decoration to the board please test their positions.

The most important step is to mark the height lines. After this it is easier to add the details. I used some arrows as a symbol for a special height (every 20cm one).

Next to the the arrows I added the "windows" which are used to store the pictures of my niece and the board where her parents can write the date/age or whatever to. I tried different arrangements because i wasn't sure if it lookes better all in one line or not. You have to decide yourself what you like more :)

Step 5: Adding Gras and Flowers

At the bottom I liked to add something looking like plants growing up the tower. So at first I colored a small part of the board with different green colors. After that I added some fabric. I just glued it to the board. You don't have to fix the whole fabric to the board because some loose parts will give you a bit more of a "3D look". To give it some more details I glued some paper flowers to the fabric. Please don't add to many flowers since we will need some later and to many won't look good.

Step 6: Coloring Details

The board looked very flat to me. I liked it to look like a wall so I added some "stones". This are just a few lines in different shapes and on different positions on the board. You won't need much of them and please remember the positions of the details we're going to add later. Use free space between the details.

Step 7: Adding Details

Everything is colored?

You know where to place your details?

Ok, so start adding them. I used a hot-melt gun to fix them. The arrows had a whole so I nailed them too. Be sure everything is realy fixed and can't be ragged by kids.

Step 8: Top Frame and Hair

At the top of the wower I added a bigger picture frame. The parents can put an up-to-date picture of my niece to this frame as often as they like. So I first glued some "hook-and-loop fastener" (I hope this is the correct english name) two the frame and the tower board.

Below the Frame I glued the name of my niece.

So what's the most important for Rapunzel? Of course, the long hair.

For the hair I used some yellow wool and made a plait. After this I glued it starting next to the picture frame and then with many curves down the tower. Glue it on many positions!

Finally I glued some paper flowers to the "hair".