How to Make a Pencil Holder with Popsicle Sticks

Popsicle sticks are useful for all sorts of things beyond holding an iced treat. They make an excellent pencil holder when neatly stacked together, as shown in this tutorial. When completed, you can paint it in any color you fancy, or decorate it with craft items.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 Preparing the template

1. Place one of the popsicle sticks on a sheet of paper: Measure its length. In this case, the stick measured 11cm/4.3".

2:Construct an equilateral triangle based on the length of the popsicle stick

Building the first triangle

Place one of the popsicle sticks over any one side of the constructed triangle.

Squirt a bit of glue on one end of the popsicle stick

Place another popsicle stick over another side of the constructed triangle.Stick the two popsicle sticks together.

Squirt some glue over the other two ends of the popsicle sticks

Take another popsicle stick and place it over the last/third side of the constructed triangle. Stick the popsicle sticks together.

Remove the sheet of paper. At this stage, you will have formed a popsicle triangle. From this sample, you will now build up the pencil holder.

Constructing the rest of the pencil holder

Repeat the above steps to add a second layer of popsicle sticks to the structure.

Continue the building process. Add more popsicle sticks until the tower has attained the average height of a pencil holder (you can decide how high to make it).

Allow the structure to dry

Adding a base

Create a base for the pencil holder, to keep the pencils in place. Squirt some glue on any two sides of the constructed pencil holder. Glue popsicle sticks across one end, so as to make a base for the pencil holder.

Let the base dry. Once it dries, cut-off any excess. As shown in the image, this can be made easier by ruling a line first, and following that when cutting.

Once it is cut, the base should look somewhat as shown in this image.

Finishing the holder

Decorate the pencil holder as desired. Throw on a bit of paint and be creative! Paint an interesting pattern, a favorite animal or your name, for example. You could also add decorative elements such as costume gems, plastic toys, buttons, etc.

Finished! Now you have a pencil holder made up of popsicle sticks