Teacher Gift Idea: School Survival Kit

This fun and simple teacher gift idea provides your favorite teacher with a collection of pretty school essentials. Make this cute and customizable DIY teacher survival kit in no time at all.

Teacher Appreciation is just around the corner, and it is time to starting thinking about all of the amazing teachers in our lives! I wanted to come up with a simple gift that is pretty and fun but still useful, and this School Survival Kit was what I came up with. This project was inspired by the cute and fun Carpe Diem Posh Planner Accessories I spotted recently over on Consumer Crafts:

Aren’t they cute? I am such a sucker for pretty office/school supplies! I knew a teacher could definitely put these cuties to work, so I decided to create a little kit of goodies as a fun and simple teacher gift. Here is everything you need to create your own school essentials kit for your favorite teacher.

Supplies needed to make your own DIY teacher survival kit:

• Plastic Storage Container
• Sharpies
• Pens
• Carpe Diem Planner Stickers, Arrow Flag Sticky Notes & Paper Clips
• Carpe Diem Washi Tape in Totally Chic and High Style
• Extra Soft Erasers
• Round Adhesive Magnets
• Self-Adhesive Wood Veneer
• Permanent Adhesive Vinyl, Transfer Tape, and Silhouette Cameo OR Letter Stickers
• Cardstock – solid colors and patterns
• Tape
• Scissors
• Your Teacher’s Favorite Chocolates or Candies

I picked up a Darice organizer box to hold all of the supplies for my kit. I liked this box in particular because it has boxes long enough to accommodate pens and markers.

If you wanted, you could just fill up the box with regular supplies and call it good, but I decided to give some of my supplies a little makeover to coordinate better with the pretty planner accessories I chose. These little touches are super easy and can be completed in really no time at all.

Step One. Make Magnets.

I used some of the round stickers from the planner stickers pack to customize some plain round magnets. The stickers were just a bit smaller than the magnets, so I started by placing colored cardstock on the the adhesive side of the magnets and then trimming around the magnets with a pair of scissors. If you are using non-adhesive magnets, you could use a bit of glue or decoupage instead.

Aren’t they cute? Such an easy way to fancy up some magnets!

Step Two. Wrap Erasers.

Next up, I customized some plain erasers to coordinate with the rest of the supplies. The erasers I picked are good quality white erasers that come wrapped in a paper wrapper. I simply slid the wrapper off and used it as a template to cut a new wrapper out of coordinated patterned cardstock. Just fold the new wrapper around the eraser and secure in place with a piece of tape.

I love these simple little touches – they make the kit pretty and personalized so easily!

Step Three. Cut Up Stickers.

I chose a pack of planner stickers from the Carpe Diem collection that I thought would be great to include in the kit, but they came on sheets that were too big to fit in any of my organizer’s compartments. The easy fix for that is to simply cut the stickers into smaller pieces taking care to cut in between the stickers.

Step Four. Decorate Box.

Next up, decorate that organizer box! This is where you can really personalize your kit to match your teacher’s tastes and interests. I chose to use a piece of adhesive wood veneer and a vinyl decal. I cut my vinyl decal with my Silhouette Cameo, weeded out the excess vinyl, and used a piece of transfer tape to move the decal to my box. If you don’t have an electronic cutting machine, you could use letter stickers instead.

Step Five. Fill!

Finally, it’s time to fill up that kit! Just place all of your items into the individual boxes.

I couldn’t help but include some yummy chocolates too – totally a school survival essential in my opinion!

My finished DIY teacher survival kit contains magnets, sticky notes, paperclips, erasers, stickers, washi tape, pens, sharpies, and chocolate. Of course, you could fill yours with anything your teacher would like or use. What would you include?

When your DIY teacher survival kit is all filled, it is ready to gift!

Alexis

Alexis Middleton is a lifelong crafter/DIYer and blogger at Persia Lou. She started crafting at a young age. As a girl, she spent summers with her grandmother crocheting baby doll afghans, making coasters out of plastic canvas and yarn, and canning apricot jam. Today, Alexis spends a lot of time dreaming up and working on projects for her family’s home. She loves mixing traditional crafting techniques with a more modern aesthetic.