DIY Back-To-School Personalized Pencil Vase

My four year old niece Bella Rose is going to SCHOOL this year! I wanted to make her a special present for her first day. I live over an hour away from my family so I am going to give this to my sister to put on the kitchen table on her first day as a special delivery from auntie Abbey.

 These are pencils I had left over from a bridal shower I threw 2 summers ago. The colors were just girly enough for my little diva Bell! I love how the erasers and metal are different colors too!

 For the vase I used a tall skinny vase so I could put a single stemmed Gabera Daisy (one of my favorite flowers!) in it. Maybe even two. The vase ended up being a bit taller than the pencils so I needed a way to cover the top part that wouldn’t get covered by the pencils…

 …so i covered it with American Crafts Glitter Paper! What 4-year-old wouldn’t love little sparkle? I cut a 2in piece and glued it the vase.

 One by one I hot glued each pencil on the vase until it was covered.

 … or ALMOST covered. As I came to an end I realized I was not gluing all of the pencils quite straight! Whoopsies! Nobody is perfect, right? I needed a way to cover up my mistake so i cut a piece of the glitter paper to fit in the open spot.

Then I added some ric-rac ribbon to the bottom as well to hold the pencils in place, just to be sure they stay put! My mistake doesn’t look all that bad, if I don’t say so myself! I am almost done and am LOVE it! The colors are so girly and it has the perfect amount of sparkle!

I think Bell is going to love it. Maybe she can even pass it on to her teacher at the end of the year!
I am going to create a personalized “Bella” tag for the vase, but I am saving that for later in the week!

What is YOUR favorite BACK-2-SCHOOL memory?