BasicGrey Altered : Owl Miss You Teacher Thank You

Owl Miss You Teacher Thank You Gift | Lisa Storms

With our school year ending soon, I wanted to come up with a super cute gift box to send a thank you to my kids’ teachers. This owl gift box is inspired by the adorable toilet paper tube owl crafts I keep seeing. This version, however, is made from something found in a different room in your home, the pantry!

For this easy project, you will need a few fun papers and chiffon flowers from the PB&J collection along with scraps of black, white, and orange cardstock, a glue stick, paper trimmer, and an 18-ounce oatmeal container. Generic oatmeal is the easiest to use for altered projects as the outer label is usually the kind you peel right off in seconds secured only by a few dots of glue. I like to grab a box from the dollar store.

Let’s get started!

Remove label from empty oatmeal container (see note above about generic brand).

Trim a sheet of Sunny Day to 4 x 12 inches and adhere around top half of container with glue stick. Be sure to have a complete seal especially along the top rim of container. I actually run a glue stick around the rim afterward for an extra seal. Since the container is 12.5 inches in circumference (I mean really, makers-of-oatmeal-containers?) you’ll need to add a small strip at the back to completely cover. Tip: Use rubber bands to hold paper while glue dries.

Trim a sheet of Hip Fab to approximately 3-1/8 x 12 inches and adhere to bottom half of container. There’s no need to fill in the remaining half inch at the back as it will be covered.

Trim a sheet of ‘creamy’ (back side) to 3-1/ 8 x 10-1/4. Round the two bottom corners with scissors. Cut or punch out two eyes (approximately 1 inch wide), two pupils, and one diamond beak as shown. Set all aside.

Peel up the top two layers from chiffon flowers and carefully cut off with scissors, including red beads. Set aside. Tip: Be sure to keep the trimmed layers to make small flowers on a future project.

It’s easiest to go ahead and bend the top of your container closed before adhering all of the extras we just prepared. Begin by folding the top of your container in half as shown. Crease the ends well.

Beginning with the back side, gently fold down the top toward the front beginning at a light pencil mark two inches from the top. Work the edge down slowly to keep it from getting too bent up. Crease the new rounded edge. Repeat with the front side, overlapping onto the back flap.

All that is left now is assembling the prepared pieces. Adhere the patterned paper strip, eyes, and beak as shown.

To add a sentiment to the front, use letter stickers to spell out “owl miss you” onto a strip of fluffer nutter (back side) and adhere to bottom.

The box is all ready to be filled with goodies. Fill with treats, a gift card, artwork from the kids, thank you notes, or whatever thank-you you wish to give. An alternative sentiment “thanks for making me wiser” can also be used, keeping with the owl theme.

We’re so excited to have added Lisa to the BasicGrey altered arts design team! This is the first project she’s created for our “BG Altered” series and if you’re like us, we can’t wait to see more! Welcome, Lisa!