Whew, this gift is finished! Done. Complete. I started working on this gift first thing Tuesday morning. Over the weekend, I asked Nate to take one for the team and buy two six packs of beer so that I could use the cartons for teacher gifts. There was a little arm twisting...but he agreed.
Yea, I'm totally just kidding about having to twist his arm. haha
Also over the weekend, I picked up a can of Chalkboard spray paint from WalMart...it was only $4. Score! The directions on the can said to apply a few coats and give the surface 24 hours to set. So after Kyleigh got on the bus Tuesday morning and Abby had a sippy cup of her "coffee" (don't freak out, I don't give my almost-3-year-old coffee, it's hot chocolate :) ) and watching some Dora, I stepped out onto the porch and started spraying. It was fun. :-D
I sprayed two sets of about 3 coats to both cartons.
Then let it dry until I was ready to decorate it Wednesday morning. I left them on the porch (until it looked like it was going to rain) and covered them lightly with a piece of wax paper to keep the falling birdseed off of the wet paint. (See, someone on one of the two floors above us has birdfeeders on their porch and we get rained on by seeds.)
After the bus stop Wednesday morning, Abby and I set up camp at the table and I started painting the chalkboard cartons. First was the 'Thank You' across the handle in pink.
Then (and this took me the better part of the day) I painted all 4 of the apples: 1 on either side and 2 on the back of the handle.
After those had dried, I painted the saying on the front of the box. "Thanks for 'supplying' Kyleigh with knowledge!" (Because the carton was going to be filled with classroom supplies. :p )
Kyleigh wrote the names of her teachers on either side of the carton in chalk.
After everything was dry, it was time to fill it up. I ripped some large pieces of tissue paper in half and put the halves in the bottom of the six sections of the carton.
Then (just because I'm super nerdy) I spread out all the "fillers" I bought to see what all I had and how to go about fitting them into the carton. So, some classroom supplies ideas for the teachers:
little books of stickers, pencils (or other little things for the classroom prize box), black permanent markers, ball point pens, sticky notes, dry erase markers, highlighters, paper clips, binder clips, cut outs for the classroom, staples, and band-aids.
I took some of the supplies (like the pens, pencils, markers, highlighters) out of the packaging and tied them together in bundles with some ribbon. Then I put all the supplies into the carton.
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| Front |
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| Back |
After I got everything in, it was time to unroll the cellophane wrap. The carton went into the center of the very large piece I unrolled with the two booklets of stickers, a package of erasers, and the sticky notes placed standing up on the backside of the carton since there was just no way they could actually fit into the carton. I pulled up all the edges and tied it off with ribbon. And voila! A beer six pack carton got turned into a chalkboard gift carrier. :)
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| What the back looks like. |
Tres magnifique! ;)
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