glamorous, yet practical

Here's a fun little craft project Frances and I worked on together a few days ago. It was so satisfying to make - the process and the finished product - that I wanted to share it with all of you, just in case you have also been wishing for a bejeweled pencil holder and can't wait until Christmas.

We started with an egg carton, which we filled with all the 'jewels' we could find in the pantry. The red lentils added lovely color, and the pepitas were a particular hit, because we could munch on them as we worked.

We used a toilet paper roll as the base. I couldn't find one initially, so in a fit of indulgence I let Frances spin half a roll of paper off onto the table. Talk about process! I then cut a circle of paper to fit the bottom and reinforced it with masking tape. I also reinforced the peely parts of the tube with tape and covered the whole thing in brown paper.

Then came the fun part, painting glue on the sides and sprinkling and pressing the jewels all over the thing. As soon as it was dry enough to handle, Frances raced to fill it with its intended items:

She will tell you, it nicely accomodates one pair of kid scissors, four pens and two pencils. Not bad. And it looks even nicer now that the glue has completely dried.