Back to School: Pencil Holder

As children of the 80′s this was a favourite and we thought we would revisit it with our own kids.  Inspired by our clematis flowers, we set about making some pencil holders to store desk supplies.

Materials

• Felt
• Fabric scissors
• Glue (you could use craft glue, fabric glue and/or a glue gun)
• Ribbon
• Beads, needle, thread, threader (to assist putting the thread through the needle)

Directions

• Use a clean, dry can.  We strongly recommend that you put it into a dishwasher rather than hand washing as the inside can have sharp edges (which will be covered by felt in the finished project).

• Cut your felt to be about 5 cm/ 2 inches taller than the height of the can.  It should also be able to wrapped around with about 5cm/ 2 inches overlap.

• We added ribbon at the top for a bit of interest.

• Cut out your felt pieces.  They can be any design (e.g., geometric).  We chose to do flowers so we hand sewed a few beads to the centre, cut out petals and added a bit of sewing to the edges.

• Glue your embellishments onto your felt and allow them to dry overnight (we sewed the edges on the triangle design below when the glue was dry to firmly affix them and to add detail.).

• Glue your felt piece to your can.  We found that for this portion a glue gun was quite helpful.  Make sure the bottom of the felt is flush with the bottom of the can and wrap the excess of the felt over the top of the can (this will cover any sharp edges.)

• Once it is dry, add your pencil crayons, markers, highlighters etc.

Purpose

• Creating an exciting space for working at home

Safety Notes

•  As mentioned, the interior of cans can be quite sharp, please exercise caution when using them.
• Use fabric scissors with adult guidance/supervision.
• Wear a smock to prevent fabric glue from adhering to your clothes.