Ruler Succulent Planter & Back to School Blog Hop

It’s almost time for school to start and that means everyone with kids is scrambling to buy school supplies, get some new clothes, and figure out who this year’s teacher will be. To make things easier, we’ve come up with a fun idea for an easy teacher gift to kick the year off on a good note.

But, since this is a Back to School Blog Hop, we’ve joined up with a great group of bloggers to share even more projects and printables to help the start of the school year be more organized and go off without a hitch. Check out all of the awesome ideas at the bottom of this post.

So, for this project, we hacked into our stash of extra wooden rulers (left over from our Ruler Drum Shade.) What? You don’t have a superfluous supply of rulers? No worries. You can get them for relatively cheap at pretty much any store that offer school supplies. Here’s what we used to make our Ruler Succulent Planter:

– Three 12 inch wooden rulers
– Needle nose pliers
– Hack saw
– Wood glue
– Large C clamp
– Scissors
– Sand paper
– One gallon freezer bag
– Small succulent
– Potting soil

Use the pliers to remove the plastic or metal straight edge piece from one side of the rulers. (You can try to pull them out with your fingers/nails, but I was having no such luck.) Cut each edging piece into approximately 3 inch sections with scissors.

With the hack saw, cut each ruler into quarters (also in 3 inch sections.)

Next, we attached two pieces of ruler together. To do this, evenly divide the ruler sections into two groups. We will call them group A and group B. Re-insert the cut edging pieces into group A. Add a line of wood glue along the side where the plastic or metal edging piece was on group B and then push A and B together. The straight edge piece will then be in the middle of the two ruler pieces, which will help make everything a bit sturdier.

Add some more of the wood glue to the side of one of the sections and then use the C clamp to hold a second piece on to create a 90 degree angle. (If this is getting too confusing, just refer to the photos.) Do this for all 4 sides and the bottom piece of the planter to make an open top box.

While we were waiting for the glue to dry, my daughter and I ran to the store to grab a little succulent. Here she is picking out her favorite.

Ok, back to the project.

Once the planter is all put together and dry, cut a large square out of the corner of the freezer bag with scissors and insert this new “bag” into the planter. Trim any excess off, so that the top of the bag is just below the edge of the box.

Then all that is left is to add some potting soil and plant your cute little succulent.

I know this process sounds pretty wordy, but the planter was really easy to make.

And it will make the cutest little back to school teacher gift, especially since we threw in this witty little flag.

We love that this succulent will be easy for my daughter’s teacher take care of and add a little life to her desk or window in the process. What are your favorite gifts for teachers, besides the obvious, but delicious, apple?