Easy String Pen Holder

Welcome to the Nik Nak Box!

As Christmas is quickly approaching, I have created one homemade gift that could be a great present for someone this Christmas.

You will need:

- one clean tin eg. a hot chocolate powder tin

- white paper

- hesin string

- a hot glue gun or PVA glue

- a regular gluestick

- pencil/pen

- ribbon (optional)

- wrapping paper (optional)

- some patience :)

Step 1: Because my tin was bright purple and had lots of writing on it, I decided to use the white paper as a cover up.

Lay your clean tin on the top of a blank white piece of paper and using a pencil or pen, mark the bottom of the tin onto the paper. This mark will act as a guide to cut the paper.

Btw; if you are wondering about the use by date above, I have had the tin for a while :)

Step 2: Cut along the line onto the end of the paper.

Step 3: Glue down the paper using a regular gluestick.

Step 4: I didn't want to just have the white paper as the base, so I decided to use some Christmas paper at the top, meaning that the string would only go three quarters up the tin.

I repeated steps 1 to 3 for the Christmas paper, but stuck the paper along the top of the tin.

Step 5: Start to wrap the string around the base of the tin. I would put hot glue down for a bit, then stick the string over it and hold it while it dries. This is the part of the creating that requires some patience! :)

I did find that the glue would bulge over the top of the string and then dry, meaning that when you would come around the tin again to the same spot, the string would stick out a bit. Therefore, I would recommend dragging the glue gun along the paper to make a thinner spread of glue, as lots of glue isn't actually needed.

Step 6: After I had stuck down the string to the place I wanted it to go, I had some string left over, so I went around the tin and used the string to fill in any holes in the lines. If you want to do this, make sure you do it subtly, not cutting straight across the already glued down string as it will be really obvious. I gradually would work my way to the places I wanted to fill in.

Step 7: I originally left the tin as it was, with just the string and wrapping paper, but decided it was a bit bland, so I wanted to add some pizazz!

I glued red ribbon around the bottom of the tin and a blue pom pom ribbon around the top.

The tin is finished! Here is one idea of how to use the tin!

Overall, I am pretty happy with this gift! The glueing of the string was a bit messy and you could see the paper underneath sometimes, but I think the final look of this holder is really cool and creative.

I hope you enjoyed this post and could use the holder as a potential gift for someone this Christmas.

Look out for more Christmas themed posts!

Copyright

Images and text: Nik Nak Box

Socials

Instagram: @_niknakbox

Pinterest: @NikNakBox