Rustic Desk Organizer

I have a super quick Teacher Appreciation gift idea for you!
I can’t believe we are almost at the end of the school year – I don’t know about you but I am so ready for summer!

When I decided to do a Teacher’s Gift idea, I immediately called up my sis – since she’s a 1st Grade Teacher, I figured she’d be the expert on cool teacher gifts!
She said that fun, pretty things for organizing her room are always great. And also, that she has enough scented lotion and candles to last her the rest of her life.

So I got to work creating a new Desk Organizer! I wanted it to be useful, but still pretty.
I’m so happy with the way it turned out!

Isn’t it cute? I love that there’s a place for lots of supplies – but there’s still room for sweet little vase to hold all those flowers for teacher. :)

This is so quick to put together too – and it’s easy to customize for your teacher – or even for your desk at home!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Frame – this one is a 5 x 7
Fabric piece – 6 x 8
Posterboard or cardboard – 5 x 7
Adhesive or Wonder Under for fabric
Small Jars to fit in the glass space of frame
(These are three small votive holders from Michael’s, 2 small canning jars and one small vase)
Twine, cording and fabric for wrapping
Hot glue

Begin by cutting out your fabric and posterboard pieces for your frame. The posterboard is to stabilize the fabric so it will lay in the frame nicely.

You’ll want to apply some sort of adhesive to the fabric. You can use a spray-on glue or use Wonder Under, like I did.
Apply the fabric to the posterboard.

Place your fabric piece into the frame behind the glass and put your frame back together.
Now we have a pretty base tray for our organizer!

Now begin wrapping your glass pieces. I used a combination of black and brown jute, and organza.
For the organza, cut the pieces for the small vases and then pull the long threads off both sides to give it a frayed look.

Wrap the fabric around the small glass pieces and hold it in place with a little hot glue. (Not too much or the fabric will be lumpy.)
Wrap your jute or cording around the fabric and tie in a pretty bow.

Repeat for your other pieces –

Place all your wrapped pieces on the frame. Add just a tiny bit of hot glue to the base of each piece to hold it in place.

The only piece I didn’t glue down was the vase, so it could be easily washed out. I think it’s so cute already!

Now you can fill it with fun supplies to finish off the gift! How easy was that?!
I love that it’s unique but still useful!

I think this would even be great for those hard-to-buy-for guy teachers – just wrap the jute without the bows, maybe choose more masculine fabrics and lose the vase!
I hope you give it a try!

*Update: A reader noted that she was having trouble with getting the hot glue to hold. You could easily use another glue option if you want to glue down the glass pieces – like E-6000 or something similar.

I’m linking to Sunday Scoop, Today’s Creative Blog, Met Monday, Skip to my Lou, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday, Shabby Creek Cottage, and the other fabulous parties on the party page – make sure you check them out!

(This was originally a guest post at Skip to My Lou)