File Cabinet Revamp- Classroom DIY

My sister in law, Blair, is a middle school teacher and has been working had to prep her classroom for the coming school year. She is back to share with us some of her most recent DIY classroom ideas! Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s such a privilege to have Katie ask me to write a guest entry again. Since she is the Queen of Crafting in our family, it’s always nice to have a thumbs up from her after a DIY project. Today I have 2 crafts to share with you that are great for the workplace.  This year will be my 3rd year teaching and my 2nd year teaching the same subject at the same school. Last year my teacher workdays before the start of the school year consisted of planning with my partner 6th grade teacher and putting up posters/organizing my room. Now that I have a full year of teaching the same subject under my belt I’ve really been looking up ideas on Pinterest to make my classroom more “Me”.

The first DIY I have to show you was a file cabinet revamp. I really wanted to work on documentation this school year. Any teacher will tell you the three rules of teaching are “document, document, document”. 

For this project you will need:

File cabinet revamp

Materials:

File cabinet

Krylon Spray paint

Scrapbook paper

Mod Podge

Paint brush to brush on the Mod Podge

Clear Acrylic Sealer

I wanted a file cabinet but knew I would hate how ugly they are so I decided to paint it with Krylon for metals. I picked out a fun purple and went to town. The best advice I can give with spray paint is hold it 7 inches away from your object and paint many layers. Don’t try to cover it in one spray. Also, start spraying off of the object and continue in a straight line, not stopping the spray until AFTER you have passed the object. This will help eliminate any shiny spots or uneven places.

I had wanted to paint a chevron pattern on it like Katie’s buffet table but after taping and painting, I removed the painters tape and watched the spray paint come up with it. I was not excited. So I moved on to plan #2. I decided to try my hand at Mod Podge. I’ve only done it one other time so I was anxious to see how well this would do. Basically you just put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the top of the cabinet and gently lay down your paper, smoothing as you go. If there are bubbles don’t worry too much now. Once I covered the entire top with scrapbook paper I waited. I’m not patient so this was excruciating. Once dry I covered the entire top with another THIN layer of Mod Podge. WARNING: THIS WILL MAKE BUBBLES BUT IT’S OK! We’ll fix it later. Once this is completely dry (10 minutes) I sprayed the clear acrylic sealer on top. This will make it water proof and stop it from ever rising up.

Once the sealer was dry, I began pushing on the bubbles and they immediately flattened out. Don’t rub them, just push down and it will stick. I used leftover scapbook paper to make the little labels. I think it turned out really well and I can’t wait to put it in my room.

Before

After

The second craft I created wast a Post-It picture frame I found on Pinterest. It’s very self explanatory and here’s what you’ll need:

Materials:

Clear picture frame ($1.00 at walmart)

Super Sticky Post-it ($1.00 for fun colors at walmart)

Ribbon ($3.00 for 5 yards)

Scrapbook paper (.50 for one page)

Pen Pal ($2.88 for 3 at Walmart

Glue gun

Start with your clear frame. I removed the piece of paper that they put in the frame and used it as my template. I cut 2 pieces of scrapbook paper for each frame because I wanted the pattern on both the front and the back since you can see it from either side. Next I tied my ribbon and put a dab of hot glue behind the knot in the bow just to ensure that it wouldn’t move. Then I peeled the back off of the Post-It notes and the Pen Pal and stuck them where I wanted them and VIOLA! I will definitely be making these for teacher gifts in the future! They took 10 minutes to make 3 and they only cost me about $3 each!