Another Homemade Teacher Gift Idea

The 5th grade English teacher probably lost over 100 pens this year. (I wish I was exaggerating!) The students simply wouldn't bring any to class and she kept lending them out. Several different times she said, "I really need a way to hang on to pencils." So I decided to help her out as a token of my appreciation!


Here is the pin that inspired this craft.


First I took a used spaghetti can and washed it off. Then I started gluing the pencils down all the way around it. (Make sure to space them out correctly, particularly at the end! oops... And decide whether you want the pencil's brand on the outside or not. I had one little pencil that had it's "brand" showing while the rest did not.)

Once the pencils had been glued around the can, it was time to start with the flowers. The first step there was to cut the flowers apart. Then I took flower tape and wrapped a flower (technically two in this case) around each pen. This part got a little sticky, but I had to apply some pressure or I found the tape kept falling off.

At that point I threw the flowers into the can to see what I thought. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed. It was just too boring... So I decided to add a label saying, "Please return to ___________ =)" I also put a brown ribbon around the pencils.

One final touch and I was all done. I simply felt that the flower pens were falling too far into the container. So I went to the dollar store and bought a $1.00 bag of those little decorative rocks. They were just the right thing! Now the flower vase looks perfect, plus the rocks will make it a little more stable on a busy teacher's desk.

This project was a bit more spendy than yesterday's. The can was obviously free, and the pencils were only about $2.00. (I believe I used 38 of them.) Flowers only cost $3.00 and the flower tape was about $1.50. Where things got more expensive was the pens. I didn't want to buy just any cheap pens, so these were about $1.00 each. However, they were a brand I trust and one that should last all school year! The ribbon and scrapbooking paper were things I had laying around the house. So the total cost of this project was about $16.50. Not bad for an amazing coworker if you ask me!!


What other pins do you think would inspire me to create more?
~HoJo~