I have several of these glass flower frogs that I picked up at garage sales and thrift stores. When they aren't doing bouquet duty at the bottom of a vase (they are meant to hold your flowers in place), I use them to hold pens and pencils on my desk. A lot prettier than the old coffee mug I used before.
Source: Seen on more than one crafty blog.
By ~gloria from Upstate NY
This page contains the following solutions.
Here is a cute idea I made for my children's teachers. This can be used as a vase for fresh cut flowers (or even an artificial bouquet) or even as a pencil/pen container.
I take the cardboard boxes that hold the 4 sticks of butter and turn them into useful and pretty pencil and graft supply holders.
Felt pencil holders in the shape of a shoe and a boot. Print out the template as shown. Finished shoe is approximately 9 inches high.
Spray the can with the flesh color paint. Let dry. Add features to face with Sharpies, using picture as a guide. Start eyes about 1-1/2 inches from top of can and leave room for the bow tie at the base.
If you get tired of pencil tips breaking and ink pen tips getting messed up in your pencil holder, try this: get a cheap cleaning sponge from the dollar store and cut it to fit in the bottom of your pencil holder
Here is what I do with some of my extra cereal boxes, and the end of the duct tape roll that has no adhesive on it. I join them to make pencil boxes for the table.
Recently, I took one old oil container, wrapped it with a beautiful coloured paper and decorated it with flowers, glitter and other pretty things. Now my pencil holder is ready.
This is a craft that recycles wrapping paper from Christmas and a glass jar.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am wanting to make a pencil holder out of a canned goods can. How can I get the smell of stewed tomatoes out?
Keri from Boone, NC
Fill with water and a few spoonfuls of vinegar. Let soak a few hours.
After you clean it out with the vinegar, cut out a circle shape of it from a dryer sheet and glue it in, gives a great smell.
Baking soda is great but if you add white vinegar to it it will clean and deodorize it very quickly. Just don't forget to wash it out afterwards.
Thanks everyone! I'm new to making crafts and very excited about my new crafting hobbies!
I find that putting a good dose of baking soda (anywhere from a tablespoon for small container to 1/2 cup or more for a larger container) into any container, filling it up with water, shaking (or stirring) ... and leaving it for a day or two (repeat shake-up or stirring every few hours) does wonders at removing any odor (even plastic bottles).
Try putting it in the freezer for 2-3 days. I know it works for plastic items but haven't tried it on cans.
