This week I altered a plastic gum container. I made it into this handy-dandy magnetic refrigerator pencil holder.
While thumbing through the newest Good Housekeeping magazine (January 2010), I saw this really clever idea. A gum tin made into a refrigerator pencil holder. So simple, but so ingenious.
Like many of you, I have a magnetic grocery list/to-do pad stuck on my refrigerator door. I can never seem to find a pencil or pen when I need to write on it though. I usually have one stashed in a nearby drawer.
I decided I was going to make myself one of these neat pencil holders. Of course I thought....I can make mine better. I am going to make mine a little bit more "artsy". I went through all of my metal tins and couldn't find one shaped like this. I remembered I did have some plastic gum containers that opened on the end. It ended up working just fine. I just cut the plastic lid off and started altering it.
I wrapped the gum container with printed paper. I left the paper about 3/4" long at the bottom. I folded the paper at the bottom like the end of a wrapped gift box. Added a vintage looking label to the front. Aged with a little ink and sandpaper. The neck of this container is tapered, so I added two layers of twill and twine around the neck. A button and paper flower were added to embellish it. I added one round magnet to the back of my container and it is plenty secure when loaded up with a couple of pencils/pens.
Super simple. Super convenient.
