Pencil Holder from Gelli Arts® Printed Baby Wipes

Baby wipes!  I cannot live without them!  I use them to blend colors, to remove too much
paint from projects, to clean stamps, stencils, the Gelli® Plate and so much more.

I realized that some of my used baby wipes had beautiful colors and I wondered if I could use them,
once dried, as fabric.  I collected and
dried the lovely ones until I had a nice pile, then I started to play with
them.

There are many awesome
things you can do with used baby wipes since they are not as fragile as you
might think. They are great for all
kinds of sewing projects!

Today, I will show you
how I used baby wipes and the Gelli Arts® Mini Triangle Plate to create a
colorful pencil holder.

  

Before I start, I have to
say that I am not a sewer.  I hate sewing
patterns; I do not measure or care for perfection.  If you are not a sewer either, do not be intimidated
by this post!  I challenge you to get
your sewing machine out and create something with fabric; you will be amazed by
what you are capable of!  So let’s go!

I started by selecting
baby wipes in nice contrasting colors, as I wanted my pencil holder to be very bright
and colorful.  Of course, you could
decide to combine more monochrome colors if you want.

Then I decided I wanted
to create a patchwork effect using the Gelli Arts® Mini Triangle Plate.

I rolled out some
acrylic paint on my craft sheet and used my brayer to cover a rubber stamp with
a nice even layer of paint.  Using an
acrylic block to hold the mini Gelli® plate, I took the paint from the stamp,
transferred it to the Gelli® plate, and then stamped it on to the baby wipes.

You can also roll the
paint on the Gelli® plate, use the rubber stamp to take away paint from the
Gelli® plate and then stamp it on the baby wipes.  This will give you a negative image of the
rubber stamp.

When I had enough triangles
stamped, I cut them out.  I roughly
followed the edges of the stamped patterns.  For me personally, I like a bit of
imperfection, a bit of wonkiness. 🙂

If you want it to be
more uniform, then you could cut out a triangle from chipboard and use that as
a guide for cutting – all the triangles will be the same size and shape.

I took a piece of canvas
fabric (~12″ (30.4cm) x 17″ (43.2cm)) spread it out and made a nice pattern with the triangles. I secured them to the fabric with pins. Then I cut the fabric to size, leaving about
5/8” (1.5 cm) border around the triangles.  

I used my sewing machine
to zigzag the triangles on to the fabric. I did not worry about the lines being straight;
I just made sure that I did not miss any edges. The baby wipes are pretty stretchable and
while I was sewing I stretched the triangles so the edges touched (or slightly
overlapped) each other.

Then I took another
piece of fabric that was just as wide as the first one but, 1 ½ times the height.

I then folded the bottom third of the fabric up on top of itself (this is to make the compartment for the pockets). You can watch my video to see how I did this!).  In the end, I had the same size piece as the patchwork fabric.  Then I sewed the compartments
that will hold the pens and pencils.

When this was done, I
placed one piece of fabric on top of the other with the right sides facing each
other and sewed them together with about a 5/8” (1.5 cm) border from the edge.I used the stitching of the triangles as a
guide.  Leaving one side open, I then turned it right
side out.

Then I folded the
remaining ½” of fabric inside and placed the beginning of a piece of ribbon in
the opening. Finally, I closed this side
as well by continuing to sew all around the edges.

And here is the final
pencil case:

Thank you for stopping
by! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and
got inspired to create your own fun projects using baby wipes and Gelli®
Plates!

-Birgit Koopsen

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

Congratulations to this months winner!

To enter the giveaway, click on the red “ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE” button below! (This will ensure that we can contact the winner and that entries are limited to one per person. One winner will be selected from all the entries via a random number generator to receive this very special giveaway!) Entries will be accepted until August 22nd at noon EST. Our lucky winner will be contacted by email and announced here on the blog and on our Facebook page by 5:00PM EST the following day. 

Giveaway includes:

Two Gelli Arts® Mini Plate Packs

Stamps (3)

Baby Wipes

Fabric

Paint

Brayer

Ribbon

Paint Brushes

PS: Please—share your prints with us on our Facebook page, or on Instagram using the hashtag #gelliprint #gelliarts and #gelliplate. Tag us with @gelliarts on Instagram and Twitter too! We love to see what you’re creating!!

Remember, we now have Gelli® partners all over the world, so it’s easier than ever to find a Gelli® retailer near you!