Crayon Cake and other Teacher's Gifts

This post is dedicated to easy to make gifts for your teacher for the holiday season.  My sister sent me a link to this awesome pencil cake on Formal Fringe.  My daughter is in preschool so they don't really use many pencils.  I decided to change up the original idea.

Inspiration Post

This original tutorial uses foam rings to create the shape of the cake.  I also saw a very similar tutorial where she used an old cookie tin.  Yeah for recycling.

My Creation

As you can see, I used crayons.  I think it took about 4 boxes.  I always pick up a bunch of boxed when they go on 25 cent sale a couple of times a year.  For my form, I used cardboard oatmeal containers - 1 large and 1 small.  I cut them down to be about 1" shorter than the crayons with a pair of scissors and then hot glued the two layers together.  The crayons are held on with a rubber band on each layer so that they can be reused, but Miss Vicki loved it so much that it is permanently displayed in the classroom.  Had I know, I would have hot glued them on.  Actually, the project was so simple that my preschooler put each crayon behind the rubberband with a little help from mom.  (Plus, the first day of school was our teacher's birthday so it worked out really well.)

Crayon Monogram

Let me just say that I dodged a bullet with this project.  I almost made it instead of the crayon cake above.  

This is another one of those proojects where you would hardly need a tutorial.  Seriously.  Though she did make a great point - she printed the letter out in the size she wanted and then had the cute text next to it.  Which is cute.  Most of them that I have seen as just the monogram.  You can find this tutorial at Chic & Cheap Nursery's Blog.

Pencil Scarf

This is another project I am in love with.  I will be making a couple of these this year.  How fun.  I actually considered just making it from fleece to save time.  If I do, I will post a tutorial. 

Zakka Life has the knit pattern here.  As a lefty, I have found knitting totally impossible, but I do crochet.  I am pretty sure that I could make up my own crochet pattern for this scarf without much thought.  I've also seen a similar scarf done as a crayon.  That looked like more work.

Some easier options for people with multiple teachers.



I know that not everyone is still at the point of just having one teacher to gift to so below are some easier, less expensive options for gifts. 

Embellished Hand Sanitizer



This project looks to be about $1.00 for the bottle of hand sanitizer plus some scraps from your stash.  Plus, your child could really help with this one.  It's just embellished with stickers.  Personally I never use this stuff.  It's horrible for you, but I notice that every single classroom has more than one bottle of it.  You could do the same this with handsoap.  Thanks to Little Birdie Secrets.

The Classic Apple

First, I totally love Skip to My Lou.  It just gets better and better.  You can find the free printable for this project here.

We Need Smore Teachers Like You!

I love this.  Roots & Wings has the tutorial where she shows you how to make this great mini milk carton from 1 12"x12" piece of paper.  Plus, I personally love consumable gifts.  Who doesn't?  You could fill it with candy, cookies, supplies for the class, whatever floats your boat. 



Hope you enjoy the teacher gift ideas I put together.