DIY: How to make your own (portable-friendly) pen holder for your desk

What you’ll need:

• Cardboard
• Toilet paper/kitchen paper/wrapping paper rolls (or empty, tube-shaped packaging or cans)
• Paint of your choice
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors and craft knife

I wanted to bring some tidiness to my desk and got rid of some clutter, but then I realized I had way too many pens and pencils, but far too little space to present them properly and keep them tidy. What I needed was a pen holder, so I thought why go out and buy one when I essentially have everything I need to make one myself? It was time for a new craft! But I wanted to make it quick and easy, so that I could continue with my cleaning. That’s when I came up with this tutorial. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you’ll surely have everything you need for it at home – just be creative and keep your eyes open for some extras or other ways to decorate it. This is so easy that you can even make it with your kids!

1. If you’re using kitchen or wrapping paper rolls (anything longer than toilet paper ones), cut them into smaller sizes (so that your pens will fit into them) and paint them (don’t forget to paint the insides as well, at least around the top). Put them aside to let them dry.
2. Take two pieces of cardboard and cut out the pieces where you want the handle to be. The two pieces should be the same, so that you can glue them together (this will ensure that your pen holder is strong enough to carry everything).
   
3. Now, if you have two nice and evenly cut pieces of cardboard you could either paint them as well, or wrap them in a nice paper to conceal the uneven edges, which is what I did.
   
4. Now it’s time to decorate! You can be totally creative here, and use whatever you have at home / you like. I used washi tape (it’s sooo pretty, it almost looks like jewelry :D) around the tubes and over the handle of the cardboard middle piece.
   
5. Then glue the tubes to the middle piece. Make sure to glue them a bit over the edge of the cardboard, so that you can attach another piece of cardboard or thicker paper under the tubes. To make that, just put your pen holder onto a piece of thick paper, cut it out (a rounded edge looks nice), and glue it under the whole thing to prevent your pens from falling out.
6. Et voila – your pen holder is ready to use, and it took me less than 30 minutes to make!