I was just introduced to this really neat idea by a friend of mine. I loved the idea and the look of these so I thought I would share the instructions. These would make great stocking stuffers or a quick gift for teachers or even a quick gift for a friend.

The supplies you will need are:

*A paper trimmer
*Adhesive Sheets
*Clear Micro Beads
*Patterned Paper
*Xyron or double sided tape
*A Pen
*A Bead Tray

The pen that I will be decorating here and giving the measurements for is the regular Bic round stic pen. I bought a package of ten for $.96 at Wal-Mart! This is a really fun and easy way to dress them up and make them sparkle. This project only took me 5 minutes from start to finish. I also had a little help from a three year old. In fact, this is a project that kids would love to do. It is so fun and easy!

The first step is to pick what paper you want to use to dress your pen up. It could be a favorite color of a friend or just a favorite piece of patterned paper. You could also take a plain white piece of paper and stamp your own design. The Bic pen measures to be 4 ¼ long by 1 1/32nd wide. I measured from the top of the pen to the place where the cap starts on the pen.

The trick on this step is to double check that your paper is not in the way of the cap staying on the pen. Make sure to double check this!

Run your patterned paper through the Xyron or use double sided tape to glue your paper to the pen. You will then need to attach the paper to the pen. The easiest way I found to do this step was to lay the paper down on my table with the sticky side up and lay the pen in the middle. I then rolled the pen until my paper came together. I did allow my paper to overlap just a little bit so I wouldn’t have a white gap.

After making sure that the paper was secure to the pen, I then cut my adhesive sheet using the same dimensions as above except that I added more to the width. You want to make sure that your adhesive covers everything.

After cutting your adhesive sheet, take just a second and pour your micro beads into your bead tray. I found that the more beads you had in the bead tray the easier it was to cover your pen. So be liberal with the micro beads!

After making sure that I had cut my adhesive sheets correctly, I then peeled back one side of the adhesive sheet. I used the same technique as above to attach the adhesive sheets right on top of the patterned paper. I laid my adhesive sheet down on the table with the sticky side up and then laid my pen down right in the middle.

The trick on this part is to peel the other back without touching the adhesive sheet at all. I used some tweezers to push the adhesive sheet together at the edge.

Without touching the adhesive sheet on the pen, lay your pen down in the micro beads and start rolling. You will be able to easily see where you need more beads.

Once the pen is mostly covered in beads you can start pressing down on the beads. To heat set the beads on the pen, briskly rub the pen between your hands. I also gave the pen a quick blast with my heat setter and then rolled the pen onto the table and pressed firmly.

I had a lot of fun making this pen and it was so quick and easy to do. I hope that you will find this a creative and fun thing to do with your children or just for fun!

The Finished product:

See more of Rachel's work in our gallery.
Read Rachel's bio