Simply a wedding pen.

If you are going to have a guest book at your event for the guests to sign, you will need a wedding pen, which every guest sees and uses. Here is an easy way of designing a pen that will match your wedding to a "T". You will need:

1. an ink gel pen with the ink color of your choosing 

2. coordinating ribbon

3. Swarovsky crystals - five crystals size 20 SS a row for the body of the pen, plus one crystal size 42 SS for the top of the pen    

4. glue gun

5. glue stick

6. double sided tape  

1. Start off by wrapping the double sided tape around the pen from its top to its bottom . Be sure to leave a little bit extra of tape at the top as shown in the picture, since you will be cutting the tape and ribbon off to create a clean edge at the top of the pen. The wraps don't need to overlap. They just need to be close to each other, as the ribbon will cover any gaps you might have.  

2. Once the double sided tape is on, start wrapping the ribbon around the pen, leaving a little bit of extra at the top, just as you did with the double sided tape. It will be easier to work if you remove the gel ink center of the pen for now.

      

3. At the bottom of the pen, be sure to wrap the tape evenly with the edge. In order to do that, on the last inch of the ribbon, tape a piece of double sided tape, trim it to the width of the ribbon and tape the ribbon along the edge of the pen. The bottom of the pen is a bit different from its top, since we can cover any imperfections of the fraying ribbon with a large crystal, but since the bottom of the pen is where you will insert the gel ink center of the pen back, we need to make sure the ribbon is taped evenly along the edge of the pens opening.   

4. Once the ribbon is covering the pen entirely, you will need to trim the ribbon at the top of the pen as closely to the top as possible. Since you left a little bit of extra tape at the top, don't worry about the ribbon fraying as the double sided tape will take care of that, plus size 42 SS crystal you will glue on top of the pen will cover the fraying edge.         

5. If you are using different color crystals, it will make it easier to work if you separate the different colors into piles. Size 20 SS crystals are ideal for this project since they are big enough to hold with your figures without burning yourself and five of them equal one row.   

6. Hot glue gun time! I start gluing at the bottom of the pen, at the place where you cut off the ribbon, covering the fraying edge of the ribbon. I glue at least two rows of crystals at the bottom, but no more than three, as it will make it difficult for your guest to hold the pen. At the top of the pen, be sure to glue as evenly along the edge of the pen as possible, since you will be glueing one large crystal on top of the pen - if the smaller crystals are sticking out, the top large crystal will not adhere to the top properly.

7. Feel free to create the pattern you love. I chose alternating rows of green and pink crystals.

Dont forget to glue the large crystal on top of the pen.

8. Insert the gel ink center of the pen back into it and you are all done. Enjoy!

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