Little People Birthday Chart

Remember when I made a birthday chart for Nana?  Waaaaaay back when?  It was a Mother's Day Present.  Well, I wanted to make one for my mom too.  And, I decide to do a slightly different idea.  I probably would have loved to do one exactly like this one for Nana also, but I didn't have the time to wait for all the supplies to get shipped to me. So, there you go.  

I got the inspiration from Pinterest.  Of course.  

First, I got these little gingerbread men from Hobby Lobby.  Sometimes they are available in stores, but I got mine online.  And, because I wasn't sure if painting them in coats would leave bumpy lines, I just painted the whole thing in skin tone to start with.  I actually already had this paint on hand from a craft I had done before.

Then, just like I did before, I divided the families into colors and painted the "people" according to family groups.  I also differentiated between boys and girls with pants vs. dresses.  Funny story: the kids would always refer to the ones that were only painted in skin tone as naked :)

I also used the same discs that I worked with before, so I could put them as the months on the plaque.  Now, there was some experimenting of course.  If you look at the orange person in the top left, you can see how I tried different pen thicknesses and faces.  I also, originally wasn't going to outline the clothes, but once I did, I thought they looked significantly better.

This is the near finished product.  Name, birthdate, color coded, gender specific outfit....  No face yet :)

I did personalize just a very few.  Grandpa Dave, who passed away recently, was in silver.  He was also bald, so he doesn't have a full head of hair.  And his death date is on the back of his "person".  Grandma Gay (not pictured because I am an airhead) is also in silver (she passed away when my mom was 17).  Grandma Jeanne got her hair color updated because 1- I already had the color on hand and 2- it matches her hair color almost exactly!  Grandpa Paul (white hair) and Grandma Pat (silver hair) also got their hair done :)

Onto the plaque:  I told my mom that this gift was coming, which allowed her to pick some of her own customization.  For instance, she picked both the fonts that appear on the plaque as well as the base color (which is a tan).  I printed, cut out and centered the word and then traced around it with my knife.

You can clearly see the indentations it made on the plaque.  I traced it with my black paint pen, filling in the middle, and let it dry before I put on a sealing coat of Mod Podge.  When I made Nana's, I had trouble with the black paint bleeding into the while, so I hoped the coat of Mod Podge would help.

And then it sat.  For, like, ever.   As you can see, the font Grandma picked for the word "birthdays" is quite curly, and tracing it with my knife seemed daunting...   Yes their are two D's.  I wanted the correct spacing of the letters as well as to make sure the letters didn't angle in a funky direction.  By having two D's, I could line one up exactly over the other, and everything would be perfect!

I finally realized that I could just trace over the edges with a ball point pen (pushing really hard) and it would get the same effect as tracing with the knife.  It was so much easier, slightly less dangerous, but no less hand tiring.

And you can still clearly see the indentation it made!

So, after two coats of white paint pen on the lettering, and a coat of Mod Podge on everything (plaque, as well as people) it was time for final assembly.  If you look (two pictures above), you will notice the pencil lines my wonderful and exacting hubby drew so I would be able to space out the discs better.  In the picture below, they are already glued on.  Then, it was onto the hooks and screw eyes.  I ordered the hooks from Amazon here.  They have something very similar at Hobby Lobby, but in brass...  and I prefer silver.  Just be aware that they come from China, so it takes several weeks to get them.  The screw eyes (which I feel like is a weird name, but it is the name printed on the packaging, so there you go) I picked up off the shelf in my local Hobby Lobby, but they also sell them online here.  I had to pre-drill the holes, so the hooks and screw eyes would go in easier.  It also seemed to keep the "people" from cracking in half.

Also learning from last time, I used the pliers right from the start, so I wouldn't get a blister.  I put the screw eyes in the top of the head and the hook in the bottom.  They hook onto each other quite easily and move when/if a person needs to be added.

I put hooks directly under the discs but accidentally screwed them in too far.  The screw eyes couldn't fit in the small open space, so I had to unscrew them a little bit.

The finished plaque.

And the finished piece!  Voila!

It may be hard to tell from the picture just how cute it is, but it really is adorable!  And I love it.  I will be making one of my own, for sure!  With, perhaps, just a little bit more personalization even.  Also, please note, there are no April birthdays!  Since this is for my mom (and dad) I included their parents, their siblings (and spouses) and their children and grandchildren.  Having 50+ cousins on each side, we decided not to include them.  Not because we don't love them, but because A-that would be dang expensive, and B- very time consuming!