I was going to get all sappy and tell you how six years ago today was the worst day of my life, but it’s just too close to Christmas to get all gloomy. So instead, I’ll show you the one handmade gift for Alexis this year.

roll1.jpg

I’ve been thinking about this project ever since I saw the one over at Pink Chalk Studio. And I decided it would be a great inexpensive stocking stuffer for the oh-so-spoiled Alexis. Besides, that kid loves her art supplies. I didn’t even have to go shopping for any of the stuff. The fabric all came from my scrap bin – which seems to grow exponentially every month, I should really find some more stash/scrap busting projects. And I confiscated the pencils from Alexis herself. When I spent SIX hours last week cleaning out her room, I found more markers and pens and pencils than anyone person should be allowed to have.

roll2.jpg

I’ve seen these things all over the net, and they’re all beautiful, but I really love the ones that have the graduated rainbow pattern for the pockets. I’m a sucker for rainbows. I also really liked the look of the linen for the background fabric. It’s the perfect compliment to all the busy colors, and it’s classy. I adore linen. Unfortunately the scraps of linen I had left were not wide enough to cut the backing fabric from one piece, so I used a small strip of the pieced fabric to connect two pieces of linen for the back. I love how it turned out. There is just a hit of what you’ll find inside when it’s all rolled up.

roll3.jpg

I had a couple of false starts when I was making this. I actually had to piece the stripes twice because the first time around I made them too narrow for the pencils to actually fit in the pockets. THAT was annoying. I thought I might actually have to go fabric shopping because the orange and that yellow-green (what’s up with yellow-green/green-yellow and blue-green/green-blue anyway? Who can really tell the diff?) were tiny little scraps to start with. Somehow I managed to squeak out just enough for the two stripes, though, and so my stash was busted. Yay!

Now. Seriously. Pass on the list of scrap stash busters, my room is a huge mess.

Comments

5 Responses to “Rolling for Pencils”

  1. Rebecca on December 23rd, 2008 3:13 pm

    I remember as a child using the scraps to make hair scrunchys. Just a little elastic is all you really need! And I love hair scrunchies. I wear them all the time! Maybe that makes me still in the 80s or something?

    Anyhow.. thought I’d give you my favorite idea. :)

  2. kimforbeads on January 1st, 2009 4:52 pm

    Great idea, love the colored pencil roll, I have seen these with crayon’s, but not as cute as yours. Best wishes to you for 2009.

  3. GA on March 19th, 2009 2:17 am

    Hey, I am a big fan of your blog. I am also art lover. Check out my blog at http://ruchi-artandcraft.blogspot.com/

  4. Josh Patel on July 24th, 2009 2:30 am

    Hey
    Rock garden in Chandigarh India has a lot of things made of just scraps, when we were kids we used a lot junk like boxes, card etc to make gifts for friends, i really liked your work its great.

    Btw, I really like your blog so I submitted it to Viralogy.com. That will help more people discover it! If you want you can claim your blog at http://www.viralogy.com/blogs/my/3725 which will also help your ranking. Hope you get more traffic through that!
    Anyway, I hope you have a great week and that you will be successful in every activity you engage in!

  5. Mystery Quilt (and giveaway) : jmday.com on May 5th, 2011 11:31 am

    [...] Two tiny (about 2″ square) lavender filled sachets. Made from the scraps of the pencil roll I made for Alexis a few years back (she still has it and uses it!). I found the botched (meaning [...]

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