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The Flower Pen

Frugal Crafts and Homemade Gifts (featured column)
Submitted by Beth Helwig

The flower pen 1

You may have seen these Flower Pens at your local doctor's office or child's school.  They are cute and easy to make, and the main idea is to keep people from walking away with your pens!  You can wrap the pen with green floral tape, but here, we use ribbon instead to add more color.  These would also make a great gift for Mother's Day and Teacher's Appreciation Week!

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This is a simple project that can be made for less than a dollar and makes special little something presents.  The "Flower Pen" makes great gifts for children's birthday party favors, package tie-ons, or a little special gift for anyone by simply tying on a gift tag.

Item's needed:

A package of ball point pens (you can get a package for $1)
Flower tops (you may have some already at home or you can buy a bundle for a $1 at the dollar store)
Ribbon
Hot glue gun
Duct tape or packaging tape (you can get this at the dollar store)

Directions:

Remove cap from pen.

Cut flower from bunch leaving 1/2-inch of the stem.

Tear off enough tape to go around pen once.

Tape flower to pen, making sure flower top is lined up with top of pen.

Place a small dot of hot glue at base of pen and adhere ribbon. Wrap your ribbon around pen making it as snug as possible and then continue to wrap ribbon around pen, until covering the entire pen up to the top. Cut ribbon and adhere with another dot of hot glue.

The flower pen 2

If you would like, you can make a gift tag for your pen, punch a hole in the corner of the tag and attach tag with a string or another piece of ribbon.

I used a bouquet of these on my Easter table, see first photo above.  If you would like to use for a group of presents just take a clay pot or other vase you may already have, take your tape and cover the hole in the bottom of your clay pot if using and then pour rice 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up to the the pot or vase and place pens in pot or vase making a bouquet. This way anyone can choose the flower they want from the bouquet. Or, you can give the entire bouquet as a gift.

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Copyright © 2011 by Beth Helwig. All rights reserved.