Tissue Box Cover DIY & Blogger/TpT Meet Up in Newport!

          OH MY!!! What a week! Where have I been? I haven’t posted in a while. Yikes! Forgive me! If only there were 30 hours in a day, I might be able to get more done. Or, if I didn’t need to sleep I could do a lot more too. I value my sleep far too much to pull an all-nighter and get stuff done. So, now you are probably wondering what is making me so busy that I am even talking about 30 hour days and less sleep?!! Well, let me fill you in...

• Summer School Intervention – It has begun! This was my first week and I absolutely LOVE it! The students are great and they seem to be enjoying themselves! I was hired to teach math, which I love! Not only that, but I get to work with my favorite grade, 2^nd! Lucky me! I have been quite busy with getting things ready and prepared, and well, organized! Sticky notes and paperclips have been my best friends lately. No complaints though, I actually like organizing. I will be sure to keep you posted on summer school as the program continues. I have lots of fun ideas in the works!

• JOB SEARCHING – Lately, I feel like I have spent more time on my computer than anything. School Spring has become my homepage (not really, but might as well be) and the job search is in full swing. My goodness it is tiring. Tweaking those cover letters has been tedious and redundant (aka a pain in the butt). My favorite is when I spend two hours tweaking my cover letter for a position, apply, and then hear back a few hours later with an email saying the position has been removed from School Spring and no longer available! Yea, that’s lots of fun for sure! NOT!

• BLOGGER/TPT MEET UP – Yesterday was a blast! The lovely ladies in my area all met up for lunch and shopping in Newport, RI. We had a great time! I was so happy to have everyone down for the day!

 

 

What a great day with Deirdre from A Burst of First , Dianne from Hopelessly Devoted to Teaching , Sara from Smiling in Second Grade , and Lori from Hey Teacher (Her blog coming soon!) ;-)

 

 

• DIY PROJECTS – Ok, I know DIY projects are not exactly necessary, however, for me, I just love them so I count them into my schedule. This week, I spent the time prettying up my plain, wooden tissue box cover from Michael’s. You know, the one that I got for a PENNY! I still can’t believe that! Either way, check out my new tissue box cover...

 

   











                                          Before                                                  After

 

Ok, so here is how I did it...

 

 

Materials:

 

• Wooden Tissue Box Cover - (Even though I was lucky to find mine so cheap, I have seen other similar ones at Michael's for $5. Cheap enough to make one for yourself!)
• Tacky Glue - $1.79 at Michael's
• Fabric - I used a thicker piece of fabric to make sure it was durable and wouldn't rip. While it was a bit more pricey than a thin cotton piece, I recommend the thicker fabric. I ended up buying a half of a yard ($5 from Joann Fabrics) and only needed about half of that.
• X-acto Knife or Razor Blade - Either works fine!
• Tape - Suggested, not required. Most types of tape would work for this, however, scotch tape probably wouldn't work so well.

 



How to Make Your Own Tissue Box Cover:

 

Place the tissue box face down on the center of the fabric. Line it up so it is centered and all flaps completely cover the sides when folded in. I had about 1" or 2" of fabric that folded over the sides and into the center. You will be able to trim fabric if needed later.

 

 

Now, here comes the fun part, wrapping your tissue box cover! It is sort of like wrapping a present. I started with the smaller ends first. Gently lift the end of the fabric from one of the smaller sides of the rectangle and fold it over the edge of the wood. After eyeballing where the corner is, make a small cut in the fabric so the fabric rests evenly on the inside of the box and no longer lays across the edges of the longer sides of the wooden box. (Both corners need to be cut to do this.) Are you lost yet?! Check out the pics below to help you understand my probably confusing explanation.

 

 

 

 

Using the tacky glue, glue that first flap down to the wood. Use tape to secure it until it dries. Having the sides taped will help in the end when you need to pull the other sides tight. If you can see from the picture, I used electrical tape I found in my garage. 1 - because I couldn't find other tape 2 - because that stuff works! 3 - I was too impatient to go to the store and buy other tape! ;-) Once side 1 is secure, repeat the same steps for the opposite side of the box!

 

Now for the tricky part! You will find that when you go to lift and cover side 3 that there is a lot of fabric that bunches in the corner. You can reduce that overload by trimming down the excess fabric that hangs over from sides 1 and 2. After trimming down the fabric, lift the fabric straight up and over the wood. When in place and pulled tight, begin gluing! This step does take some trial and error, but it isn't too tough! (That is saying a lot considering I am terrible at wrapping gifts!)

 

After just a few tries, I was able to get the seam nice and even! Check it out!

 

 

(I'm proud of it! Can you tell?!)

 

The last side is actually quite simple. Pull the fabric straight up and over the wood. Just as the other sides, pull the fabric tight into place and then glue. Use tape over the fabric to hold the wet gluey fabric in place. Don't worry about the appearance of the inside. You WILL have glue and uneven fabric on the inside. That is, unless you are extremely talented and have 3 hours of time to make it perfect. Anddddd, as teachers and moms, I am sure you don't have that kind of time! Plus, no one can see the inside anyways! ;-) 

 

When you flip it over, you will see this! So, that means our next and final step is cutting out the center! (Almost done!!! You can do it!!!)

 

Using an x-acto knife or a razor blade, make a slight in the fabric from one end of the opening to the other. Being that the top isn't glued (for purposes of the glue bleeding through the fabric and because it is easier to make the scissor cuts), secure the fabric by holding it down between your fingers and then make the cut. This will prevent the fabric from pulling away from the sides as you drag the knife and make the cut.

 

Once the center cut is made, take scissors and randomly cut slits all around the perimeter of the opening. Before gluing the slits back on the underneath of the wood, make sure all of the pieces fold over and back all the way. Otherwise, make the slits longer and try again.

 

Now, just let your fancy, new, desk eye candy dry and soon enough it will be ready to use! Ta-da! Your teacher friends are officially jealous of your adorable tissue box on your desk! Hehe!

 

Be sure to share your decorated tissue boxes with me if you make one! I would love to see your pics on here and on Instagram (my username is meetmissparker)! Be sure to follow me on Bloglovin' (link to follow me on the right) and on Instagram! I will be decorating 2 more of these tissue box covers for a giveaway this week! You won't want to miss out on this giveaway and others coming up!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions! Happy tissue box making! ;-)