A few pens and pencils are always lying scattered around the house. Some are on the table, some have rolled under a book and others appear out of nowhere.

And there is no doubt you already have a pen or pencil holder, but there is always room for one more, especially when you can make it free of cost with a few things readily available at home.

With a carton of any sort and some colourful sheets, you can make this rainbow pencil holder that looks like a bunch of pencils standing together. Let’s start!

Things you need:

1. Pieces of foam sheets in 8 colours (you can even use less than 8)

2. Markers

3. Scissors

4. White glue

5. Hot glue (optional)

6. Ruler

7. Small carton (any shape; you can use a Tetra Pak)

8. One pale peach-coloured foam or felt sheet to make the sharpened part of the pencils.

Directions:

1. Draw a pencil shape on the foam sheet according to the size of your Tetra Pak carton. I chose to have two pencils on each side, so I cut out eight pencil shapes from the foam sheet pictures 2 and 3.

2. Cut the sharpened parts of the pencils from the pale peach-coloured sheet to match the size of the pencil shapes. Paste these pieces on top of each pencil, as shown in pictures 4 and 5. Notice the curved bottom edge, which mimics the sharpened part of a pencil.

3. Draw a dotted line along both sides of each pencil to add detail. Then draw a simple smiley or any face you like, as shown in picture 6.

4. Once the glue on the pencils is completely dry, paste them neatly on the carton, pictures 7, 8 and 9.

Your handy little rainbow coloured pencil holder is ready!

The writer can be contacted at ithecraftman@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 24th, 2026