DIY of the Week: Make Quirky Penstands from Newspapers

Hello to all you lovely people. Hope this summers' keeping you good... Its been extremely hot over the last few days in Goa. Thanks to our beaches, we can always have a quick dip to keep off this scorching heat. 

Well getting back to business, I finally got my self started from a long lazy break and back to what I love doing! Here's what I made this weekend and I'm sure you all will love it too. Followed by the picture is a detailed tutorial for the same. Hope you enjoy it!

Being a crafter, I'm always short of pen stands, storage boxes etc etc. I'm sure you'll agree with me on this! And if you're like me, who never likes to purchase such stuff thinking that you can make it by yourself, you're definitely going to end up making things like these. He he he.

I love Newspaper & magazines as craft as art mediums. You can use them in a million of different ways to make amazing stuff. The best part is they're easily available and inexpensive. 

What you'll need for this Pen Stand:

·             Newspaper (Pages cut into Halves)

·      Acrylic Paints ( Normal & Metallic)

·      Ribbon of your Choice

·      An old CD

·      Colored Paper

·      Empty tissue Paper Rolls

·      Fevicol

To Start off, we need to make thin rolls like pipes from newspaper. To do this, we need to take halves of newspaper pages and start rolling it from the corners till you form one thin roll from it. 

Start rolling slowly from one of the corners of the paper and keep rolling it tight till you form a thin roll. Glue the last bit or corner that remains so that the roll remains intact.

Once you're done with this, trim the ends and cut them into sizes as desired for the project. Since we're making a pen stand and I intend to use it for my brushes and scissors, I've just cut the rolls into halves. These are all the rolls I made since my next project too is based on these newspaper rolls.

So we're done with the newspaper rolls. Now we need to make a base for the pen stand so I'm going to use an old CD, some empty tissue paper rolls to make this. Since I love a lot of compartments, I've used 3 tissue rolls to make this pen stand. 

Take any old CD and get it covered by any colored paper of your choice. 

Glue all 3 empty tissue rolls to this base with fevicol. 

Once you're done with this, apply fevicol to all the tissue rolls from outside and also some next to the base so that we can easily glue the thin rolls to the stand. One by one glue the thin newspaper rolls to the stand.

This is what it will look like once you complete gluing all the rolls together.

Now comes the fun part - Colour, enhance and decorate!! Since this has a lot of layers which creates a lot of dimensions, I thought of using a mix of metallic and normal paints inspired by peacock shades. So I started off painting the lower half with some metallic shades and the upper portion with the normal acrylic paints. To complete the look, I got the CD base painted in metallics too.

Here's what the pen stand looks like after being fully painted. I'm so in love with the colours of this pen stand!

For the finishing, tie a broad ribbon around it. I've used a gold one to contrast the colours used on the pen stand.

So that's it with my super-colourful & vibrant pen stand. Making and keeping stuff with colours like these simply makes me happy! 

Well, if you're going to try this out, remember the options are endless. You can use a lot of combinations and there are a million ways to enhance and accessorise it!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY and I hope you enjoy making it too!

Till then,

Happy Crafting! Have a great week ahead!

Karen

DIY: Stationary Organizer from disposable Coffee Cups

When it comes to organising small stationary items it gets really difficult to get all these things together at one place. This is so true especially as far as stuff like pins, paper clips, lead packs, erasers are concerned. Its just too messy to organise things like these. And I'm sure you'll agree with me on this! We do have a lot of options in pen stands but then again it really doesn't serve the purpose. This weeks project is a stationary organiser which works very well for tiny stationary stuff. Made from disposable coffee cups and a box lid, this organiser is sure to solve all the tiny stuff problems!:P

Take a look at the organiser before you check out the tutorial!

Isn't it cool? Well this project is really simple..

TO MAKE THIS, YOU’LL NEED

Disposable Coffee Cups

Box Lid/Cardboard/Covers of an old hardbound book

Metallic Paints

     Coloured Pens & Markers

     Fevicol

Start off with painting the coffee cups with metallic paints on the outside as well as the uppermost part inside and the base on the inside.  Allow the cups to dry.

Take a box lid as the base (You could also use a cardboard piece or a cover of an old hardbound book). Paint it in the colour of your choice and design. In this case, I've used my favourite spiral design on the inside and the sides of the box. Create a similar design on the cups as well.

 The final step is to glue the disposable cups to the base. 

As I said, its a very good and an economical way to create an organiser for your desk as compared to the regular and boring pen stands available in the market. And a great way to recycle! So go ahead, make your own!

Till then,

Happy Crafting!

Karen

Junk'd - Pen Stands from Beer Cans and Old CD's

Hello there! Hope you all have been good :)

Last time I had talked about the Multi utility stands from newspaper & old magazines. This post is an extension to it; the only difference being that these pen stands are made from beer cans, old CD's and some jute twine.

Yes, I love to use old scratched CD's for my projects since they simple make a great option as a base to my pen stands. And of course, I would love to experiment more with the CD's stacked in my house. I'm sure there'll be numerous ideas to turn them into something useful. 

Well here are few snapshots of the pen stands I've made recently:

You can make your own pen stands using beer cans or even juice/cola cans. There's a lot you can do with it and lot of ways to make them. Other alternatives to jute twine:

- Use newspaper strips

- Use Paper Tape

- Left over fabric pieces

- Lace borders

And lots more. Use your own imagination and creativity. 

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and make your own quirky pen stands. 

Till then, Happy Crafting!

Karen 

Junk'd - Multi-utility Stands made from Pet Bottles, Newspaper & Magazines

I’m sure you all have difficulties finding space to store newspapers and old magazines. An anxious wait for the ‘ragdi guy’ is all what can save your day.  Well, let me tell you this - if you would like to craft with newspaper and magazine, the options of crafting are unlimited. There’s a hell lot that you can make out of paper and magazines. 

When it comes to newspapers & magazines, its the same case with me! A whole lot of newspapers and magazines stacked in the house. And here's what I thought of using them in a creative way. 

Basic Items used for this project:

 And obviously some glue and paints...

Well, there's no specific way of making these multi-utility pen stands. You can use your own inspiration and creativity to make your own. Till then you can have a look at these for your inspiration.

The lower part of a large pet bottle crafted into a multi-utility stand with folded paper strips (1 strip folded into 4) and quilled roses made from colourful  magazine papers

A middle cylindrical part of a large pet bottle crafted into a mutli-utility stand with folded strips of newspaper (same as above) along with a satin ribbon and a quilled rose from colourful magazine paper

A half of a small green pet bottle done up with a simple collage

 A plastic watch pack crafted into a multi-utility stand with triangular cut newspaper strips. Bordered in thick black paint
Here are ideas of how you can use these stands - not just limited to using them as pen stands... 

So this is it for now. I have more exciting stuff lined up next which is based on a similar concept as these. 

Till then, stay tuned and Happy Crafting!

Karen