DIY Holiday Teacher's Gift

I wrote this post before the awful, heartbreaking school shooting on Friday.  Our prayers and thoughts are with all the victims' families and the whole Newtown community.  An unimaginable tragedy. My littles haven't been far from my side all weekend.  

My little Layla started preschool this year so this is the first time I've had to think about what to do for a teacher's gift.  I knew I wanted to make something for her two wonderful teachers but I wanted it to be something that they could actually use and that Layla could participate in making. 

I bought (20) of these 2" blocks to make these adorable blocks for Hadley for Christmas.  But I over estimated how many I needed (math - not my strong point) so I had about ten leftover just waiting to be used for something.  Then after seeing this make your own pretty pencil tutorial I thought gluing a few of the blocks together would make a great pencil holder.

So I started with six unfinished wood blocks.

Then I stuck a few pieces of painters tape onto a plastic cutting board and with an X-acto knife I started cutting out shapes and letters (both teachers' last names start with W) that I thought would look cute.


This was a delicate process!

After I had all my tape cut out I firmly pressed them onto the front, back and sides of the three blocks that I had super glued together.



 



 I let Layla pick out four paint colors and she got to work!

Once my little artist was finished, I set the blocks aside to dry in the sun and started making the pencils.

 

To make the pencils I just followed these instructions but used wrapping paper (dollar section at Target) instead of washi paper. 

 



Once the paint was dry I used the X-acto knife to peel off all the tape and had Scott drill holes into the blocks for the pencils.

I think they turned out pretty great and I love that Layla had a hand in making them which I think makes them even better!

Two gift bags from Target, some red tissue paper and these fun Ugly Sweater free printable tags and the gifts are ready for giving!

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