For Jono’s 20th Birthday earlier this month I made him some trays to store his currently inked fountain pens in as they were a mess all over his desk. They were such a hit he thought I should share how to make them with all our Pentorium friends!
This is a really easy DIY, and only cost around $5 a tray!
You will need:
- A ruler
- Scissors
- Double sided tape
- A marker
- A Stanley knife or craft knife
- Stiffened felt (make sure it’s not the floppy stuff)
- A gift box (DVD gift boxes are the perfect size to hold around 12 pens but you can always use just the lid from a bigger box)
ONE. Rotate you box to the orientation you want to use it (try testing it with a pen). Cut your piece of felt the same height as your box but around one and a half times as wide making sure you can divide this width by 3cm. There are no real measurements here, just guess work. As a general rule, the wider your piece of felt, the more pen slots you’ll have.
TWO. Measure and mark 3cm intervals along both edges of your felt (3cm, 6cm, 9cm…). Using the marks you made as a guide, score a straight line using the ruler and craft knife. Do not cut all the way through! You want to cut two thirds of the way through the felt so it bends easily but stays strong.
THREE. Flip your felt over to the other side and do the same but mark you 3cm intervals starting at 1.5cm so your scored lines are in between the ones on the other side (1.5cm, 4.5cm, 7.5cm…).
FOUR. After you’ve finished scoring, fold along the scored lines to make the felt all zigzaggy.
FIVE. Stick heaps of double sided tape in the bottom of the box.
SIX. Here’s where it gets tricky. You need to get the felt into the box. Make sure your felt goes in with a trough on each end so you can stick the end to the box. Position each zigzag bottom onto the bottom of the box so that there is enough room for a pen. It’s really difficult to get it even so don’t worry if you have to do it a few times.
It’s good to use double sided tape because it’s easy to remove and replace the felt if you get the positioning wrong. Once you’ve mastered this, try using something stickier.
And there you have it! Easy and cheap pen storage display trays! Using a DVD gift box works out really well as you can pop the lid back on and your pens are protected and safe!