Writing Center caddy!

Happy Monday friends!

I'm super excited about this week's Made it! Tara, I'm linking up first thing in the morning so you won't miss me! ;)

Remember when I went to IKEA a month ago and found all these goodies?!

I finally made that writing center caddy I've had my eye on for..oh, a good 4 months!

First I started out with this lazy susan I got at IKEA for $7 - and that was the total cost for everything! (because I always have tons of craft paint, hot glue, ribbon, paper, etc on hand) if you had to go out and buy those materials it would obviously be a little more.

I dug through my recyclables and pulled out 6 cans - one was a little bit larger for the middle, the other 5 were all the same size to go around the outside.

Apparently we have a bean thing going on at our house! Talk about brand loyalty, no? ;)

I painted the lazy susan with craft paint. I didn't take a picture of it after I painted the edges but you'll see in the next picture! This was after the first coat - I did two coats and it covered it well!

I washed my cans really well and pealed the labels off - I definitely don't want my colored pencils smelling like Bush's baked beans! ha! I used wrapping paper (from Hobby Lobby!) to wrap the cans. If I were closer to my school I might have laminated the paper before I wrapped it around the can and glued them, but eh, if it starts to rip, no biggie - easy to fix! Because I'm more of an eyeball-it kind of girl, of course, the edges were definitely not straight! LOL So I just covered it up with a little bit of ribbon!

Last, I just put a huge gob of hot glue onto the bottom and edges of the cans (not sure if it will stay...might have to find something a little more kid-durable!) and attached the cans to the lazy susan!

I'm in love!! And in my new room I have a PERFECT little spot for a writing center (I had no room for one in my old class!)

OK - I made a version with labels, also but I'm not sure if I like them! Of course - I would laminate before attaching because there is NO way those little buggers would stay nice and neat as they are now! (oh, and I don't have all my materials at home, hence the scissors in colored pencils can, etc. don't judge :) Also, I would have each label facing the outside so they could read as they spin - this was just for the sake of taking a picture!

Which one do you like best?!

If you'd like the labels, here they are! (in 3 different colors)

{click on the picture}