DIY: Teacher Survival Kit

In celebration of National Teachers' Day, I want to share with you the simple kit I gave to our teachers earlier today. I first got this idea from Papemelroti (which is a store I super duper love) but I opted to create it myself so I can personalize it more for our school and our teachers.

I googled for more ideas and combined items from different Teacher Survival kits. Here's the list I cam up with:

I then made a layout using Photoshop but didn't print anything yet.

After laying it out, I gathered the materials I already have on hand, and also went to SM to buy the remaining items on the list. I didn't print the list first because I'm worried that I might not find some of the items. True enough, I didn't get a puzzle and earplugs so I just deleted them from my template before printing them.

The kit I found in Papemelroti was cute but every item only has 1 small or cut out piece of each, all jumbled together in a plastic. The OC girl in me can't take that and I ended up making sections and categorized the items in separate plastic bags.

Putting the items in plastic bags urged me also to make small labels for each. And of course, I didn't want them to be generic labels like "peanuts" or "gum" so I tried (emphasis on TRIED, haha) to make them a bit witty or personalize them for our school/teachers.

Here are the items I came up with:

Ideas for each label were from a mix of google searches and brainstorming with myself (haha) but after the CLIP and PEANUT idea, and knowing I had 4 more items to label (creatively), I couldn't squeeze out anything anymore. And as I told the boyfriend, when you can't find anything, write a poem. My rhyme default mode happened. What I did was combine the remaining items and make a poem to (TRY TO) connect them together :)))

After preparing all contents, I printed the final survival kit template. I was able to fit 2 templates on a letter size paper.

And then just assembled it in a white box. I used japanese paper to add to the "unboxing" experience.

I planned to stamp something on the box cover but ended up attaching the shirts we ordered for them instead. For the shirt design, I patterned it from the design given by Dep-Ed for this year.

I'm so glad I made my own kit. I'm all for customization and whether or not they appreciate this or have the same sentiment for personalized stuff, I'm happy putting my heart in small details like these :)

To those who want to use this list, which I think is very easy to assemble, just follow this link for a generic (no name, no logo) file for ya! :)

Happy Teachers' Day to the most dedicated, passionate, and loving people in the world, our everyday heroes, and my personal heroes!