Related Pages: Bulletin Board Decorations, Peanut Butter & Jelly Recipes, Teacher Newsletter Templates

Over the weekend I was brainstorming some back to school craft ideas as a way to try to make a dent in this budget. This pencil case tutorial came together way easier than I thought it would – and all of my kids loved the results. The best part is that it technically cost me $0 dollars, because everything I needed to make it I already had around the house.

Pencil Case Tutorial

Easy Pencil Case Materials List

NOTE: You can easily change dimensions of this pencil holder and make it smaller or larger as you choose.

1 sheet 12″ x 12″  (preferably double-sided) scrapbook paper

Clear contact paper (the re-positionable kind rocks, but isn’t necessary)

3 hole punch

2 sets of Velcro dots

HELPFUL, but not required, is a grid cutting mat, though most contact paper also has a grid on the back you could use.

BTW, if you have contact paper with a pretty pattern, you can just make this pencil pouch with regular (non-corrugated) cardboard or card stock.

Pencil Case Tutorial Step by Step

Step 1

Cut up 4 pieces from your scrapbook paper. I made this pencil pouch 11 inches wide to fit neatly into a 3 ring binder.

Pencil Cases for School - Step 1

In order, they are (1) at 1″ x 11″, (1) at 3″ x 11″, and (2) at 4″ x 11″

Step 2

Lay down your paper onto a piece of 13″ x 15″ contact paper as shown. This is easiest done on a grid so that you can measure and line things up perfectly.

Pencil Cases for School - Step 2

Leave a 1.125″ gap between the 3 hole punch flap and the back of your pouch, as this will be covering the other side of the 3 hole punch flap. If you think it’s tight, err on the side of being too large of a gap rather than too small. You can always cut off the excess contact paper, but you really need the front and back of the pouch to line up nicely.

Step 3

Carefully fold the pouch in half so that the front and back of the pouch are right on top of each other.

Pencil Cases for School - Step 3

Make sure that your front flap has enough room to fold over the top of the pouch when it’s all assembled. Only press the contact paper in place over the three hole punch flap, because you are going to cover the inside of the pouch with contact paper, too.

Lay the pouch flat again with the contact paper on the bottom.

Step 4

Cover the inside of the pouch with another piece of contact paper, with piece sized 11″ by 11″ . It’s OK if the top and bottom edges don’t cover all the way, but the sides do need to be pretty exact.

Pencil Cases for School - Step 4

Step 5

Now you need to clip your corners and fold lines so that you can tape the parts together into a pouch. The first photo shows where the cuts need to be made, but are kind of hard to see in the picture. So I’ve included a second photo with better lighting so that you can see what I mean:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 5a

Clip the corners off completely, but just make slits in the sides:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 5b

Step 6

Starting with the Front Pouch Flap, Fold over the excess contact paper to the inside of the pouch:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 6

Step 7

Next fold in the sides for the Back of Pouch:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 7

Step 8

Lastly, fold the Front of the Pouch over, and fold the contact paper around the entire pouch, sealing those side flaps on the back of the pencil pouch:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 8

Step 9

Almost done! Here is a rear view of the pouch. Simply clip off the excess contact paper on the sides of the 3 ring punch flap:

Pencil Cases for School - Step 9

Step 10

Carefully punch holes in your 1″ flap to be able to carry it in a 3 ring binder. If you want your hole circles more centered than mine are, then pay more attention than I did to how deep your hole punch is set! ‘Doh!

Pencil Cases for School - Step 10

Step 11

Attach your sticky velcro circles on the corners of your flap, and your pencil case is ready to pencil hold!

Pencil Cases for School - Step 11

The beauty of this back to school craft is that you can find any kind of scrapbook paper (or fabric, for that matter!) to suit nearly any personality. I’m making one for my son with Star Wars scrapbook paper, for example. You could also use wrapping paper, but I admit I’m not sure if that would work  as well because the paper is so much thinner (let me know if you try it!).

Finished Pencil Case Tutorial

The finished pencil case is surprisingly sturdy and should hold up for a good amount of time. It’s similar in weight to plastic folders, which are the only kind I buy for my kids, because the paper ones disintegrate in just a few weeks.

Be sure to check out all of our back to school printables on Classroom Jr., too!

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Related Pages: Recycled Kids Crafts, Flower Crafts, Leaf Crafts, Acorn Crafts

Be sure to check out all of our nature crafts on Craft Jr.!

Here are more turkey crafts and turkey paper bag crafts, too!

Paper Turkey Construction Paper Turkey Craft

Fall Tree Autumn Leaves Handprint Tree

Cardboard Turkey Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

Keepsake Plates Handprint Keepsake Plates

Check out all of our handprint crafts and the rest of our Thanksgiving crafts and activities, too!

Blank Printable Football Helmet	Make a Football Fan Bobblehead	Fun Football Cookies	Football Coloring Pages
Football Team Spirit Pins	Stuffed Paper Footballs	Super Bowl Centerpiece Craft	Football Toilet Paper Roll Craft
Paper Plate Football Craft	Football Door Hangers	Favorite Football Team Scoreboard	Football Pen Holder Craft

You might also like this awesome ‘Find the Footballs’ hidden picture printable from Printables4Kids!

Easy Thanksgiving Kids Craft - Finger Puppets

Thanksgiving Finger Puppets Craft Materials List

I’ve placed a photograph next to each finger puppet with the exact materials needed for each Halloween Critter. All of them require a very easy to find set of stuff:

Pipe Cleaners

Pom Poms (The pumpkin puppet uses a larger pom pom than the others)

Googly Eyes

Glue (Hot glue gun works best, but I’ve since discovered that even regular glue will suffice, it just takes longer to dry)

Wire Cutters (So you don’t ruin your scissors cutting the pipe cleaners)

The pilgrim finger puppet also needs fabric paint

The Turkey and Indian need foam autumn leaves (found at Oriental Trading or offline at your local big box craft store)

How to Make Thanksgiving Finger Puppets

Please refer to the original Easter finger puppets post for general assembly instructions.

It explains the general instructions on how to wind the pipe cleaners around your finger and how to attach the pom poms accurately.

Thanksgiving Turkey Finger Puppet

Turkey Finger Puppet Craft

Pick 3-5 foam leaves and arrange them in a fan to become the turkey tail feathers. If you found foam leaf stickers, you can just adhere them that way. Otherwise glue them together as shown.

Wind the orange pipe cleaner finger puppet base.

Bend a 3 inch brown piece of pipe cleaner as shown for the turkey head and neck:

Pipe Cleaner Turkey Craft

Glue the tail feathers onto the back of the large dark red pom pom.

Glue the cut end of the brown pipe cleaner turkey neck into the front of the pom pom.

Glue the tiny bright red pom pom onto the bottom of the turkey head to make his waddle.

Glue googly eyes in place.

Glue the finished turkey to the finger puppet base.

Thanksgiving Pilgrim Finger Puppet

Pilgrim Finger Puppet

Wind the black pipe cleaner finger puppet base.

Take a full size black pipe cleaner and bend it into the shape of a pilgrim hat. This photo doesn’t help too much, but I folded the square top of the hat first, then made two tight loops for the hat brim:

Pipe Cleaner Pilgrim Hat

Use white dimensional fabric paint to paint on the hat band as shown.

Glue the hat onto the pom pom head.

Glue the googly eyes in place.

Glue the head onto the finger puppet base.

Thanksgiving Indian Finger Puppet

Thanksgiving Indian Finger Puppet

Wind the brown pipe cleaner finger puppet base.

Cut about a 2.5 inch piece of red pipe cleaner and bend it into a circle as shown.

Glue it onto the tan pom pom head.

Glue the red “feather” leaf in place on the back of the head.

Glue the googly eyes in place.

Glue the head onto the finger puppet base.

More Kids Thanksgiving Crafts and Fall Crafts

Turkey crafts for kids

Printable Thanksgiving placecards

Thanksgiving handprint crafts

Fall Acorn Crafts

Be sure to check out this great tutorial on how to preserve fall leaves from Gingerbread Snowflakes! This simple technique can make most of these projects last for years rather than weeks.

How to Preserve Fall Leaves	Leaf Templates	Make Leaf Animals	Make Leaf Place Cards
Leaf Rubbings	Leaf Stick Puppets for Kids	Leaf Transfer Painting	Leaf Alphabet Crafts
Framed Fall Leaves	Easy Fall Leaf Wreath	Fall Leaf Mobile	Decoupage Fall Pumpkin

Check out more fall crafts with these fall paper crafts, acorn crafts, and owl crafts over at Animal Jr.!

Fall Acorns

After a few days my bowl started overflowing, and I started coming up with ideas for acorn crafts. They really are little beauties, and they simply scream to be transformed into cute little acorn people!

Acorn Crafts

How to Make Acorn Craft People

Making Acorn Crafts

All you need to make these acorn people is paint, something wooden for the body, a hot glue gun and a little imagination.

The wooden ball and spool I got at Hobby Lobby for super-cheap in the wood crafts section. I chose some beautiful fall colors and got out my tiniest paint brush to dab on the eyes and nose. This was a little tricky, mostly because it’s been forever since I’ve painted and my hands aren’t used to having to be so precise! But you can just wipe off the mistakes, if you make any, to get the faces just right.

Paint the body next, and you can make it up as you go along. I found that the more detailed I could be, the cuter they turned out. I even debated putting tiny Swarovski crystals onto the coat buttons, but that would have required another trip to the store.

Once the paint is dry just dab a tiny amount of glue onto the bottom of the acorn and pop it on top of the body. Hold it for a bit to make extra sure it’s at the angle you want.

I’m saving the rest of my acorns for some Christmas crafts, I just hope they last! They seem to like to split and fall apart after a while. Pffft.

For more fall crafts, check out these autumn paper snowflakes, fall pomanders, or these cute and easy Halloween finger puppets.

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Lara’s Wood Spool 7/8″”x 1 1/8″” 3 pc
Price: $1.04
Lara’s Wood pieces are unfinished, solid wood. They are great for painting and staining, and you can make endless projects by using several different individual parts to make unique and fun new creations! Warning: These are not toys. Not intended for children under the age of 8. Spool 7/8″”x 1 1/8″” 3 pc

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Lara’s Wood Half Ball 1″” 4 pc
Price: $1.04
Lara’s Wood pieces are unfinished, solid wood. They are great for painting and staining, and you can make endless projects by using several different individual parts to make unique and fun new creations! Warning: These are not toys. Not intended for children under the age of 8. Half Ball 1″” 4 pc

Fall Paper Crafts

I cut three fall snowflakes – one with owls and bats, one with acorns and maple leaves, and a third with pumpkins. The leaf doilies I got at my local dollar store (aren’t they purty?!). There’s a link here with a tutorial on how to make paper snowflakes, and for the most part, I cut out the shapes freehand.

For the owl in the top center I used this Fiskars Owl Squeeze Punch, but I shall warn you now that as awesome this paper punch is, it cannot get through six layers of origami paper at once. I ended up having to unfold the snowflake and punch the owl out of two layers of paper (three times) instead. I also used a regular hole punch for the small circles, and those were easy to cut though all the layers of paper at once.

I tried adding the snowflakes to a garland with fall colored ribbon and hanging it from my fireplace, too. But I liked the way they looked in our front window much better!

For more fall activities, try these fall pomanders, applesauce recipes, or these fall mad libs.

Bat Paper Bag Bat	Vampire Garbage Bag Vampire Craft	Frankenstein Frankenstein Paper Bag Puppet	Cat Black Cat Bag Craft
Owl Egg Carton Owl	Owl Paper Bag Owl	Owl Fall Paper Bag Owl	Owl Owl Gift Bag Craft
Pirate Paper Bag Pirate Puppet	Pumpkin Paper Bag Pumpkin	Puppets Kit Farm Animal Craft Kits	Paper Bag Puppets Book Peel & Stick Paper-Bag Puppets

Check out all of our Halloween crafts, or our huge amount of Halloween activities, printables and costumes across all Woo! Jr. Kids Activity sites.