How to Make a Desk Pen Holder
Blocks of wood are great pen holders because they’ll never tip over. The wooden blocks come in designs like squares, ovals, circles and even heart shapes. Choose a smaller piece of wood for just the pen or a larger piece of wood to add a statuette or a ceramic piece to the desk decor.
You can find special hardware at a craft store that will attach to the wooden block for holding the pen. Or, you can simply drill a hole in the wood and place the pen in it. If you don’t have a drill try hammering a large nail in the wood, then removing it. That will leave a nice size hole for holding the pen.
Decorate the pen holder in any number of ways. Use rub-on appliques to decorate or simply paint it. Or, cover the wood in fabric, wallpaper, or adhesive papers. For larger pieces of wood glue on a small ceramic piece then make your name across the front with brass scrapbook initials. You’ll find all sorts of choices at a craft store, such as lighthouses, cottages, tepees, wooden boats, and other designs.
Turn just about any ceramic or wooden piece into a pen holder by gluing on a plastic lid. The hard plastic lids are often found on small squirt-type products such as hair spray. Choose a small bottle for a small lid. Paint the lid gold or another color. Use contact cement to affix it to the ceramic or wooden piece. You’ll find the nick-knacks in designs like clowns with balloons, woodsy animals, flower pots, holiday designs, geisha girls, and hundreds of other kinds.
You can also use a free-standing picture frame for a pen holder. Just decorate the hard plastic lid, to hold the pen, then use contact cement to hold the pen container to the picture frame. Make whimsical pen holders by attaching the hard plastic lid to something like an unopened soda can or an antacid bottle.
A cardboard box also makes a great pen holder. Cut off any flaps and turn box upside down. Or, choose a box that has a lid. Cover it with beautiful fabric and punch holes, at random or aligned positions, to hold several pens. Instead of cloth you can paint the box, use glue and faux jewels to decorate the box, or just wrap the box in strips of leather.
Use clay to make a small but cute pen holder. You can purchase molds in which to place the clay to make clay shells, shapes and other clay creations. Make sure you choose the type of crafting clay that must be baked after molded. Clays that aren’t baked can leave clay on your pen, preventing it from writing.
Other pen holder base ideas are small mirrors, wooden blocks, plastic bases, wooden boxes or paper mache shapes. Use one of the above techniques to make the shape into the perfect pen holder for you or a friend.
