Elongated Pillow Boxes

Every summer, I put together some appreciation/back-to-school gifts for the principals and front office staff. Last year's gifts were Survival Kits for the principals, bags of M&M's for the counselor's (Miracle Mavens), and Snicker's bars for the rest of the office staff (This is to let you know that it okay to "snicker" every once in awhile.). I haven't quite decided what to do this year. I think I have a pretty good idea though. I know I will do one thing for the head principal and her secretary, something else for the assistant principals, and then something else for the rest of the front office staff. 

Today's project was making the boxes to hold the gifts for the assistant principals. I've been saving the toilet paper rolls for the pillow boxes and also started saving paper towel rolls recently. I have three assistant principals at my school and have three paper towel rolls (perfect):

I also have plenty of scrapbook paper. I measured and realized that one sheet of scrapbook paper cut in half could cover two rolls just perfectly:

Once cut, I painted some modge podge on the back of the paper and then adhered it to the paper towel roll:

Once the paper is glued to the roll, I also apply modge podge to the outside (it leaves a nice glossy finish on the outside).

After the outside was painted, I stood them up to dry. It takes only a couple of hours to dry. 

The paper was a little longer than the rolls on each end, so I cut small slits on the edge and folded them over. I then pressed either side in like I did with the smaller toilet paper roll pillow boxes. 

Here's what it looks like with the sides pinched closed.

I also created some Back To School labels to glue to the outside. You can download them here. I just painted modge podge on the backs, stuck them to the outside of the roll, and then painted over the top of the labels once they were glued on. Then I just let them dry. 

Here's what they look like completed as they are drying. Once dry, I will fill them with goodies like music pencils, erasers, tootsie rolls, etc. I will put some tissue paper on either end to make sure none of the goodies fall out through the slits on the ends. I will also put in some cute note that I'll roll up that says something to the effect of "Welcome Back to School. I hope you have a great year. Here are just some goodies to say thank you for what you do."