Yes, I actually made this.  Nope, it wasn’t hard.

Today I am going to tell you the entire step by step process for how to make a school supply cake like this one.

If I can do it, anyone can. I’m always saying I’m not a crafty person, but then I do have so much fun putting stuff like this together.  I’m beginning to wonder if I actually DO enjoy crafts after all….

Next week is Staff Appreciation Week at the boys’ school, and I am “room mom” for Caleb’s class.

Don’t be impressed.  I am never ‘room mom.’  This is simply what happens when you are the last parent to leave Open House, and you realize that no one signed up for that position.  Thankfully, the position really hasn’t required that much of my time.  I’m not able to volunteer during school hours, as I have two babies at home, but I can organize class events from right here at home.

Now, let’s talk about how to make this ‘supply cake.’

That term sounds goofy to me, so let’s call it a tower here.  I found this idea on my favorite idea zone, Pinterest!  I found several towers like this, read about them, and none of them were exactly what I wanted, but this particular one served as my inspiration because it is just so darn cute.

Shout out to whatsscrapping.blogspot.com for the inspiration on this!!

I wasn’t able to come up with exactly the same supplies that were used here, so I decided to just ‘wing it’ a bit.

Like it??  You can totally make this. I’m including directions here for exactly how I made this, to make it as easy as possible for you!!

 To print the directions: click here (Page 1 comes last on the printable. But don’t worry. It is there.)

First, buy this:

scrapbook paper

paper plate

a pretty color masking tape to match the scrapbook paper

16 boxes 24 count crayon boxes

10 bottles Elmer’s glue

26 glue sticks

1 paper towel roll

1 full size Dixie cup

2 boxes 24 count #2 pencils

2 packs of 100 count index cards

5 rubber bands

4 jumbo paper clips

alternative:  You can also use packs of glue sticks instead of glue sticks, and that’s a little cheaper and easier.  If you do the packs of glue sticks, you will need 7 packs of glue sticks.  Each pack has two glue sticks.

Here’s a photo of what the glue stick pack version looks like.  I made this one for Joshua’s teacher. Families from the class chipped in and paid for these.  I just put them together.  : )

Directions:

1. Take a sturdy paper plate, turn it upside down, and tape the scrapbook paper to the plate.

2. Don’t stick the paper towel roll to the plate until you have secured layer 1 to the paper towel roll.  Trust me.  It’s easier to do layer one  if it’s not stuck down to the plate yet.

Layer 1:

3. Line 6 boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons around the paper towel roll. Secure with a rubber band.

4. Line 8 boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons around the other boxes of crayons.  Secure with a rubber band.  Wrap the masking tape around the rubber band.  You could also use ribbon.  In the middle, clamp on a jumbo paper clip.

5. Now put tape all over the bottom of the paper towel roll and stick it to the prepped paper plate with scrapbook paper.

Layer 2:

6. Take 9 or 10 bottles of Elmer’s glue to form a ring around the paper towels, sitting on top of the inner ring of crayon boxes. Secure with a rubber band.  Wrap the tape around the rubber band.  Fasten in the center with a jumbo paper clip.

Layer 3:

7.  This is the trickiest part, though none of it was hard.  The glue doesn’t make a shelf, so you have to tape the glue sticks to the paper towel roll.  I just lined up multiple little bundles of masking tape, and stuck the glue sticks to it.

Once all the glue sticks are on, secure layer 3 with a rubber band, cover with the masking tape, and clip on your jumbo paper clip.

Topper:

8. I folded some more tape onto the top of the roll, covering most of the hole.  Then I pushed the cup onto the top.

Stick on the Dixie cup. Then I added 24 pre-sharpened #2 pencils.

9. I put a crayon box on the north and south sides and index card packs on the east and west.  Our class also chipped in for some gift cards, so I stuck those in there too.  This would also be great as a Christmas or end of the year gift for your teacher.  It was surprisingly easy to make!

ta-daaa!

Feeling extra crafty?

Visit my article here for inspiration on how to create your own vision board.

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The post How To Make a School Supply Cake appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Lots of little things are going on here in the House of Many Little Men….

This is the thing I’m most excited about:  JD is getting ready to take off.  Each day he finds his way onto his hands and knees just a little bit more.

He is also SERIOUS about his “standing practice.”  He just loves to be on his feet.  He’s extremely unsteady when you walk him, and yet the boy will randomly just let go of your hands.  Gutsy, this one.

Do you think we’ll have to hang gates before we move?  Right now he moves at the speed of sleeping turtles, so we’re good, but we have around seven weeks left in this house, and a lot can happen in that amount of time!

DID I MENTION MOVING?????

This is hands down the most stressful thing going on with me right now.  Here’s the deal:  we are a military family.  That means we can’t even book movers (set a moving date) until we have official orders in hand.

Alan has to report to his new duty station on June 30.

We have no orders.  This is April 24!!!

We keep calling.  It turns out that the EFMP is what’s holding us up.  What’s an EFMP, you ask?  Exceptional Family Member Program:  a PCS nightmare.  (PCS = Permanent Change of Station= Moving) Pray for us!  We can’t move until the EFMP people decide this is a good place for Caleb to live and get treatment.  Caleb has epilepsy.  I will be doing a post on epilepsy soon:  yes, another one, because I’m always amazed at the misconceptions that people have of it.

So that’s that.  Moving stresses me out to talk about, so let’s move on…

My #2 stressor right now is that I’m the room mom for Caleb’s class, and Staff Appreciation Week is coming up.  I volunteered to make this:

only with less Elmer’s and more pencils.  Plus, we’re adding a couple of fun gift cards for the teacher.

Do you think I can do it?  Let’s go with yes.  After all, I did make this last year:

and by ‘this’, I’m referring to the diaper cake to the right of my friend Betsy!  I forgot to take a close-up picture of it!! How do you create a masterpiece like that and forget to take a picture?  ; )

I’ll keep ya’ll updated on the ‘supply cake’!

******

Funny things I’ve seen/heard lately:

–I was going over my bank records, and I noticed a transaction that read  “Church.  $23:  charitable giving”

(Our bank categorizes our purchases.)

Alan was sitting beside me, and I thought this was an odd amount, and at a different location than our church.  I asked Alan, “Did you give $23 to a church?”

“No.  What’s the address?  Hmmm.  Let me see it.  Oh!  Ha!  Church’s chicken!”

So there you have it, folks!  If you eat fried chicken, it may or may not help you on your tax return!

One more:

Daniel was sitting down the other day, making his feet talk to each other.  Apparently they were having an argument of some sort:

“Your turn,” said the left

“Noooo,” replied the right, and it kind of just went on along those lines.  But then doesn’t everyone’s feet talk to each other?

The post Charitable Chicken and Other Little Tales appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Tops must be cut on the dotted lines, as shown on the left.  All tops turned in like the one on the right are still very helpful, but your PTA’s Box Top lady will have to go through and trim them all for you…..just a little helpful hint.  By the way, grandparents, if you’d like to send us Box Tops, we’d be happy to receive them.  : )

The post My Week of Staying at Home appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

1.  My belly is huge…..lol  Have we heard this enough yet?  A mom I met tonight asked me three times if I was absolutely sure there’s only one baby in there.  In the interest of “putting on my big girl panties and dealing with it,” I simply smiled, assured her there is only one baby, and went on about my work.

2.  How to work a “Cricut” machine.  It’s this printer thing that makes letters.  New skill to add to my resume I guess.  That will come in handy if I ever apply for a job as a….a….okay, well it was something new I learned.  Ha!

3.  PTA isn’t as scary as I thought.  It’s fun to participate.

4.  I will never, ever sign up to be “in charge” of anything though.  Margret has been working like a slave on this.

5.  Our school employs a psychologist.  I didn’t know that.

6.  I don’t actually hate crafts.  I’m often too lazy to DO crafts, but crafts are actually pretty fun.  I’d forgotten.

7. I’ve also become a little more familiar with some of the school staff, and they’re all really nice and intelligent people.  This makes me feel even more secure about where I’m sending my kids to school.

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