Teacher Toolbox

If I could show a picture of my desk drawers at school, I think most people would recoil in horror.  Although I have the best of intentions, as the year goes on, highlighters, pens, and binder clips tend to just get thrown in the drawer.  I end up accumulating too much stuff and then have nowhere to put it.  So as I was browsing Pinterest, a single project stood out: the teacher toolbox.  Yesterday, I made it and I am thrilled with the results!

My inspiration from this project came from here: Learning in Bliss and Create. Teach. Share.

This was so simple and cost less than 20 dollars to make.  I bought the set of drawers from Lowes (Stack on 22-Drawer Storage Cabinet located in Hardware) for about $16.  I then picked out 4 complimentary designs of scrapbook paper from Michaels, Mod Podge, and sponge applicators.

To size the paper, I simply removed a drawer, traced it on the paper and cut to size.  My friend Bridget brought this nifty paper cutter over:

This made it so easy for me to get fast, straight cuts.  In fact, my mission today is to find one of these for myself.  

I printed out the drawer labels on printer paper.   To make sizing easy, I used two of the formatted labels available in Microsoft Word (Avery 8660 and 8163 to be exact).    I used embellished scissors to cut out the words, and then used a thin layer of mod podge to affix the label to my already sized piece of scrapbook paper.  After that, I brushed another thin layer of mod podge on the paper, taking care to avoid the printed words, since they bleed.  I pressed the finished product into place on the inside of the drawer and Voila!  Perfect place to store all my various teacher necessities!