Monday Made It! 7/15/13

Hello everyone! I'm excited to share my first linky for Tara's Monday Made It over at 4th Grade Frolics.

I love looking at all the awesome and creative "made its" each week, and I'm finally joining in!

My first post is not very original, and will probably be very short. I am trying desperately to rush through my to-do list for the day in time to get a little pool time in. We'll see how that goes ;)

So after much research and blog-hopping, I finally made my very own Teacher Toolbox! CreateTeachShare is the blog that started this teacher-craze, and I loved her Q&A post. It definitely helped me through the process. Check it out here.

I will tell you this about my toolbox project, it took quite a while to get started! Not living in a huge town with you know, brand name stores besides walmart (sigh). I ordered my Stack-On 22 Drawer Bin online through Walmart.com. When you do this, you actually order it from a place called Plumstruck. Anywho. The box came in (much faster than I thought it would)....but broken :( There was a huge crack in the top, one of the corners chipped off, and one of the drawers wouldn't open. I was pretty upset! So I emailed them, and they graciously refunded my money (which was about $30 with shipping). Thankfully, this past weekend we visited my family in nearby Texarkana (the big city, you know) and I was able to head to a store and get one in person! I tried Lowe's first, but the only one they had was broken. Apparently you have to be very careful with these! Then I tried Home Depot and found tons! So I would definitely recommenced buying there in person. Just to be sure it isn't broken. And it ended up being about $17, instead of $30. So I used some of that money to buy some cute spray paint, of course!

 Note: The Stack-Ons originally come in light gray or dark blue. So if those colors match your room, or you're pressed for time, spray paint is definitely optional.

I bought Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2x Ultra Cover in Key Lime Gloss to match my room for about $4. Sweet!

Here is my toolbox "before"....

(please excuse my lazy, unedited iPhone pictures ;) )

And here is my toolbox after! Completed and ready to be filled!

Some notes about my toolbox experience...

I used scrapbook paper and printed off labels for my drawers, then cut them to size as I glued them. I also laminated the labels, because I'm addicted to laminating and because I thought they would be easy to change out if needed. However, it was actually a little too easy! The laminated labels really did not want to stick inside the drawers. So I had to use a lot of hot glue. Hot glue is my first instinct for any project, but if I did it again, I might research I different label method ;)

Also, make sure you're very sure (if that makes sense) about what you want each drawer to be. I ended up switching out two of mine during the process (don't look to closely at the "tape" drawer...) and it bothers me that it doesn't match completely. While the larger drawers are awesomely big, the smaller drawers really are small! Smaller than you might think. So keep that in mind when creating your labels. Don't make a small label for something that's not going to end up fitting in there...like I did! Haha.

Also, I got that scrapbook paper on sale for $10 at Hobby Lobby! Don't you love it? I've been using it for everything in my room. I love the unique-ness of the papers. You'll see it pop up again in next week's Made-It, I believe :)

So anyway, there's my toolbox! I absolutely love the way it turned out. I love organizing and I love school supplies. So you know I am going to have tons of fun filling this thing up and using it in my classroom!

Off to read some "made-its" and hopefully head to the pool while there's still time! (where is summer going??)

Have a great day! And don't forget to link up your made-it here.