Back to School Craft #5

Given that back-to-school time was always my favorite time of the year, I amreclaiming my participation in it. But with my own crafty twist. Monday kicks off Back to School Week 2010 here on I Wanna Be A Domestic Goddess. Each day Monday through Friday, I will feature one practical "back to school" do-it-yourself craft project that you can use at the office, in your dorm room, or in your home office. All of these crafts are easy (seriously, I did all five of them in under 3 hours) and do not require a ton of supplies if you have a few crafty items on hand. For more on Back to School week, click here.

It’s the weekend! And time to wrap up the series of Back to School craft. Today we make a super simple pen holder. This holder is where I keep all of my pens, pencils, and highlighters at the office. A super easy way to give your desk some personality.

Supplies needed for this project:

• One sheet of 12” x 12” scrapbooking paper
• Three different ribbons (at least ½ inch wide)
• A glass jar
• Double-sided tape

To start, measure how tall your jar is from bottom to the point at the top where it starts to taper. The easiest way to do this is to just place the ruler inside.

Next, cut your paper to be this height. Note as with anything, it is always better to make it too tall rather than too short. You can always trim it later.

To check your measurement, place the loosely rolled-up paper inside the jar. You will want to ends of the paper to overlap about one inch.

Remove paper from jar and trim any excess paper from the height and the width.

Apply double-sided tape to one side of one of the ribbons.

Press the taped ribbon down to the top of your paper rectangle. Trim the extra ribbon off. You could also measure your ribbon first, cut the ribbon, apply the double-sided tape, and then tape to the paper. But I found my way of doing it eliminated the risk of cutting the ribbon too short.

Apply double-sided tape to one side of another one of the ribbons. Press the taped ribbon down to the bottom of your paper rectangle. Trim the extra ribbon off.

Loosely roll the paper and place it back in jar.

Tie the remaining ribbon around the top of the jar.

Perfection in a jar!

And that wraps up the Back to School crafts! If you made any of the crafts featured here this week, I would love to hear about them! Email me at iwbadg@gmail.com  And send pictures!