Things to Make: Simple Upcycled Teacher Gift

In case you missed it here is the guest post I did over at Two Girls Being Crafty a couple of weeks ago!

My husband is a teacher.  He teaches the 5th grade.  Over the years he's brought home a lot of interesting gifts from students during the holidays:  body wash...candy...coffee mugs...hair gel...cocoa...and even a stuffed animal or two!

But guess what?  The best gifts he's ever received are the ones he can actually use in his classroom.

I asked him once what the best thing to give a teacher was and he said, "A raise."

But after that he said, "Hand sanitizer...and tissues."

He knows all about germs.  He's surrounded by them all day long...especially at school.

So when I was trying to think of a teacher gift for kids to give their teachers this year that's what I immediately thought of.

But how to make it cute...and something that the kids could actually help with?

Well, here's what I came up with!  It's soooo simple, and the kids can help with most of it (unless you don't want them to come anywhere near a permanent marker...which I completely understand, believe me.)

Here's what you'll need:

-  A Smallish container of some kind...I used an empty French's Onions can, because it was already white and had a lid...plus I have three of them left over from Thanksgiving meal preparations!
-  a couple packages of pocket sized tissues
-  a couple of sample size hand sanitizers
-  a bit of Christmas-y ribbon
-  a sharpie marker

First, remove the label from the container, and wash it thoroughly...you don't want it to smell like french fried onions, after all.

 Next, use your sharpie marker to draw eyes and a smile on one side of the container...

 ...and to color the lid black (like a hat).

 Next, tie a piece of ribbon around the base of the container.  You might want to secure it with a dab of hot glue or a couple of glue dots if you feel so inclined.

 Lastly put the hand sanitizer and tissues into the container, and snap the lid back on!

I included a note on the back of this little guy that reads:  "We TISSUE a Merry Christmas, and a HANDY New Year!"

There are so many cute ways to dress up a simple gift like this, but my kids loved that this was an upcycled project that they could REALLY help with!

Thanks again to Tristin for inviting me to be a part of the fun!  Happy Holidays!! :)