diy rustic signing pen

Last night I had a bit of an epiphany. I can't believe it took so long really. For quite some time, I've had these two pens saved in my etsy collection, thinking they were a cute little rustic option for a Guest Book pen, or our Certificate Signing pen. All the ones in the stores around our area tend to be feather pens, or jeweled and really, neither of those go with the look we have going for our wedding.

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Then last night I found this one on madeit.com.au and thought, "Hold up". I looked at it again and thought..."I can just make these!".

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I have no idea why it took me so long to realise it but today, here is a simple DIY project for anyone else with a rustic-style wedding.

All you need for this project is a pen (or pens) of your choosing (I used a pack of 3 I picked up at Typo on sale for $4 - they are my favourite pens!), some Jute twine, a hot glue gun and some decorations of your choosing. I choose to use some wooden hearts left over from our invitations, but you could use jewels, flowers, etc.

First up, run a little hot glue in a strip along the top of your pen. Since my pen was thinner at the top (where the lid normally sits) I took this opportunity to try and even out the pen and ran the glue along this whole section. Then place the start of your Jute straight along this line. Allow this to set for a minute, before starting to wrap your Jute around your pen, from the top of the pen. Since the glue will still be tacky as you start to wrap, it will also give your pen a very firm starting base which means it is less likely to unravel. Because you are wrapping around a piece of Jute with glue underneath, at first you may notice one side sitting out more then the rest. Because the glue should still be warm and tacky, you can simply press lightly along the line that is sticking out, and it will cause the glue to mold more to the pen underneath the Jute, giving a more even look.

Keep wrapping up the pen, making sure that you are keeping the Jute nice and close together so that the pen underneath cannot be seen. After my first pen I noticed that if I gave a little twist to any thin parts of the Jute, it unraveled a little, making it thicker and giving more of a consistent look all the way up the pen, rather then some parts appearing thinner then others.

When you reach the top, cover the top in hot glue and let it cool for a couple of seconds, before coiling Jute around the top to cover completely. Then, feel free to decorate the top if you like! I left ours plain, but the top would be a perfect spot to hot glue a jewel or flower!

After the hot glue had dried, I added on our little wooden hearts and VOILA! Personalised, rustic wedding pens for our Guest Books and fr the fiance and I to use when we sign out Marriage Certificate. I can't wait to use them! No offense etsy sellers, but... eat your heart out!! (I'm a little proud of them...)

What DIY projects did you try at the last minute? What ones are you hoping to try?
The next on my list is this pretty thing:

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I'll let you know how it goes!

Please note that I was able to leave the lids off my pens because they come with a little cap on the tip that I can leave on until the day of the wedding, to prevent them from drying out. Please consider this when selecting your type of pen, or alternatively, considering wrapping the lid as well!