When I was at Michaels shopping around for my #Create2Educate Sweepstakes, which you can read more about about here, I loaded up my cart with a lot more than I needed for to make my Get to Know Me Necklaces...
Under that pile of awesomeness, are two packs of paper that I just couldn't pass up. I'm a sucker for chevron and polka-dots and I love buying packs of paper that are coordinated so that I know they'll all mesh together if I use them on a project.
I really had no idea what I was going to use them for and then I got this baby for my birthday! I had mentioned to my hubby that I wanted to make one of the famous "teacher toolboxes" and he remembered! awww...
I had originally planned to use these super adorable labels I found on Fun in Room 4b, but when I printed them out I realized they weren't quite the right categories that I wanted and they were a bit more pastel than the rest of my room. So I set about making my own. All those posts that say how easy breezy this project is...well, I'm not gonna lie. This was an all-dayer for me. And I'm pretty crafty!
So, if you're contemplating making one, let me tell you some things I learned along the way to maybe make it a bit easier on you. First, here's the finished product, which I love:
Some of the labels look a little crooked, but I think it's because the drawers aren't really in correctly. I did not paint the outside, although I did want to and not-so-secretly still want to, but really I think I'm going to just leave it be. I think. Maybe.
One of the hardest parts was deciding what would be in each drawer! Mine is going to be more of an extra supply holder behind my desk. I keep some paper clips, binder clips, and things in or on my desk, but I have the extras stored away. So, I had to really give some thought to what things I wanted to store in there or what things I don't really use every day but want to keep handier than in the closet.
Next was figuring out how I wanted to label them. I decided to go bold. I just printed out those labels and cut them out to put on top of the chevron paper. If those labels float your boat, you can download them here but they're nothing fancy. I just printed them on paper and cut them out.
Then I cut a bunch of the chevron paper to the size of the boxes, which is 2x4 for the larger boxes and 1 1/4 x 2ish for the smaller ones...
I thought I would just randomly put the colors in, but it looked too mish-mashy that way, so I came up a bit of a pattern that didn't offend my OCD sensibilities too much:
So, if you're contemplating making one, let me tell you some things I learned along the way to maybe make it a bit easier on you. First, here's the finished product, which I love:
Some of the labels look a little crooked, but I think it's because the drawers aren't really in correctly. I did not paint the outside, although I did want to and not-so-secretly still want to, but really I think I'm going to just leave it be. I think. Maybe.
One of the hardest parts was deciding what would be in each drawer! Mine is going to be more of an extra supply holder behind my desk. I keep some paper clips, binder clips, and things in or on my desk, but I have the extras stored away. So, I had to really give some thought to what things I wanted to store in there or what things I don't really use every day but want to keep handier than in the closet.
Next was figuring out how I wanted to label them. I decided to go bold. I just printed out those labels and cut them out to put on top of the chevron paper. If those labels float your boat, you can download them here but they're nothing fancy. I just printed them on paper and cut them out.
Then I cut a bunch of the chevron paper to the size of the boxes, which is 2x4 for the larger boxes and 1 1/4 x 2ish for the smaller ones...
At that point, nothing was taped in. One at a time, I took out the chevron square, added the label, and then taped it inside the drawer. I just used regular scotch tape on the inside of the drawer. It's not so pretty, but you can't see it from the front and it gets the job done. To top it all off I added a couple of owl stickers from the Carson Dellosa boho birds theme that I have going on in my room.
So that's my teacher toolbox! I'm glad I did it but it was definitely a little more of a pain in the badonkadonk than I imagined it to be. But it's done and I'm happy. And I'm not going to paint it. The blue is fine, really. Right?
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