I enjoy giving gifts. But, if I have learned anything from decluttering parts of my home, I know that many times well thought gifts end up taking up space. You know. Those little knick knacks or Christmas decor items that really aren’t your style, but you have a hard time giving it away because your grandma gave it to you.
I try my best to give gifts that can be consumed or used over time. That being said, though, I think I have been known to give some handmade yet possibly unappreciated baby items over the years. I can’t help myself when it come to sewing baby stuff.
I have been seeing all the back to school gifts swirling around Pinterest and Facebook this week. I think giving teachers gifts is totally appropriate. They are had working folk who take care of a lot of kids every day.
I started thinking. What could be given to a teacher that is consumable? It won’t take up space and could actually be used. For me, everything has to have a touch of homemade.
Paper wrapped pencils. There is adorable scrapbooking paper all over Etsy, at Hobby Lobby, at Michael’s, and even at Walmart. This is a simple fifteen minute project for a teacher.
They are consumable, useful, practical, and a touch of whimsy cuteness.
A tutorial for paper wrapped pencils: a back to school gift for a teacher.
Supplies:
Sponge paint brush
Clothes pins (or clips of some sort)
Pencils for wrapping
Scissors
Glue
Scrap book paper
(Please excuse the skulls on the pencils. Skulls are not really my type…hence why I am covering them with cute paper)
1. Measure and cut the paper for wrapping your pencils. These pencils were exactly an inch in diameter. (I’m guessing maybe most standard pencils are an inch in diameter.)
Lay your pencil on the paper and roll the paper around it. Make a little mark once the paper meets, and you can get a pretty close guess on the diameter of your pencil. After experimenting, I learned that I couldn’t double wrap the pencils. When I did that, they had a hard time going through the pencil sharpener.
Cut the paper the same length as your pencil as well. Measure from the bottom of the eraser holder to the bottom of the pencil.
Then pre-roll the paper. It’s a lot easier to wrap the pencil with the glue if the paper has been pre-rolled like in the picture below.
2. Squeeze a fairly thick bead of glue down the middle of the strip of paper. Use your paint brush to spread the glue over the entire piece of paper.
3. Starting near the eraser, slowly wrap the pencil. Ensure the paper is tightly wrapped around the pencil. Once you have about an inch of it wrapped, use a clothespin (or other clip) to hold the paper in place.
Slowly work your way down ensuring the paper is tightly wrapped on the pencil the whole way to the end. Continue securing clothes pins to hold the paper in place.
4. Tie two pencils together and add a tag. I thought the phrase ‘Thanks for sharpening my son’s knowledge this year’ was very appropriate.
What are you giving this year to tell your teacher how much you appreciate them?
Oh, and if you are curious if they sharpen well with the paper on them, they sharpen just fine!
