Desktop Pencil Holder

Here's a quick craft that will help brighten up your desk top, a decorative pen/pencil holder.

Supplies:

clean can

scrapbook paper

white glue

hot glue gun/glue sticks

ribbon or other embellishments

Take your clean & dry can, measure paper so it is sized to wrap around the can.

Using a white glue/water mixture (add water and stir until it's a watery paint consistency), paint the back side of the scrapbook paper. I like to paint in small areas, roll around the can, paint another area, roll, and so on, I find it more manageable to do the glue in small amounts vs gluing the entire paper.

Paint and roll, smoothing paper as you go, until the can is covered. At this point, you can trim away any excess paper at the edges, using a razor blade or scissors.

After trimming the edges, it's time to add your embellishments.  I chose to use a pink velvet ribbon, which not only gives some texture, but also covers and seals the paper edges.  If you choose ribbon, before you get to gluing, take a few seconds to heat seal the ribbon ends.  You can do this by running a lighter near the edge of the ribbon.  Here's a picture of ribbon without and with heat sealing, you can see the heat sealed edge is a lot neater, and heat sealing helps prevent any fraying.

Start the ribbon with a dot of hot glue and continue to write a line of hot glue at the can's edge, firmly pressing the ribbon onto the glue before it cools (be careful, hot glue is, well..hot!).  

When you start to glue, make sure you line up the paper seam and the ribbon seam, so you have a "back" side to the pencil holder.

Add your ribbon, or other embellishments to the top and bottom edges of the can.  If you have any excess hot glue when finished (I always do!), heat it up a bit with a lighter, and then sweep it away with a toothpick for a clean finish.

To make this a more gift-able project, simply line the inside of the can with paper or fabric, and use 2 felt circles to line the inside & outside of the bottom of the can.  In lieu of ribbon, use other embellishments, such as buttons, rhinestones, etc.