Teacher's Pencil Craft.

  Let me start this entry by saying that I was extremely thankful for my daughter's teacher this past school year. She was everything I'd hoped my little girl's first teacher would be: kind, caring, fun, and patient. At the first parent-teacher conference, she had so many wonderful things to say about my daughter. So, I figured I'd show my appreciation with a little gift. A crafted gift, of course!

  I found the idea for this project while searching through Pinterest.com for 'teacher's gifts.'

Here's a list of my supplies:

• Pink & Yellow Paint
• Black Marker
• several inches of Painter's Tape and an x-acto knife
• Block of Wood, about 12 inches of a piece of 2x4
• small piece of Sand Paper
• Miter Saw (or possibly another kind of saw)
• Around 40 inches of wire, 16-20 gauge & pliers
• Stickers for the Teacher's Name (optional)

  I started by marking the wood with two angled lines to for the tip of the pencil, and two small lines for notches around the 'eraser'. My husband used a miter saw to cut the wood. (Thank you, husband!)

After it was cut, I lightly sanded the whole piece of wood, getting rid of the sharp edges.

Wooden Pencil, after being cut & sanded.

  Next, I wrapped a piece of painter's tape around the wood toward the tip, and used an x-acto knife to cut a scalloped design all the way around into the tape, removing the tape on the side facing the 'eraser.' I was left with a piece of tape still around it that would create the look of a sharpened pencil.

After the yellow & pink paint.

  My daughter painted the yellow part, and then the pink part. She loves helping with crafts! Once the paint was dry, I colored the tip of the pencil with the black marker. 

Then, I wrapped a piece of wire around the notches four times, and pushed the end back behind the other wire. I took another piece of wire, about 8 inches long, bent it in half, and slid it under the wire already around the pencil. I curled both sides of the 8 inch piece around my marker, and stretched them out a little.

After adding the wire.

Almost complete.

  Finally, I added stickers to spell out her teacher's name on the pencil. If you have nice handwriting, you can write the name instead of using stickers.

My daughter was so excited to carry it into her 

classroom the next morning. She was beaming! 

  My husband, daughter, and I all contributed. We had a lot of fun making it together, and even made a second one for my husband's aunt!

Wooden Pencil craft!