DIY Wooden Elephant Pencil and Phone Holder

Organize your pens and pencils while having a place to store your cell phone or tablet with a cute and whimsical DIY wooden elephant phone and pencil holder.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I found a free template for the CNC machine of a cute little stand and holder in the shape of an elephant.  It gave me all sorts of ideas.

https://tap.fit/rkiRzaasr

All I needed to do was tweak it a little to make it compatible with the Cricut Maker.  So this is how I converted a CNC template into a project you can make with your Cricut Maker.

GET THE SVG FILE FOR CRICUT

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Let’s Get Crafty

1.  Start by uploading the SVG file to the Cricut Design Space.

2. Mark the places that will be cut.  The Cricut Design Space will convert the image into cut lines.   Name the image/Cut pattern was it’s uploaded.

3. Add the image to your project. Select all and resize the image to W 10.25″ & H 6.7.”

4. Now let’s “Make it.”  Click Make it in the top right hand.

5. Select the material you’ll be cutting.  I actually cut this out using multiple materials.  The first time I made this I cut it out using 1/16″ Basswood.

6.   Arrange the pieces of the pencil and phone holder in the Design Space in accordance with how you would like it to be cut by the Cricut Maker.

I like to arrange the pieces so that I can make the most use of the material, reducing waste.

7. Prepare the Maker to cut wood by moving the star wheels to the side.  This is an important step.  The star wheels, if left in place will indent and damage the material you are cutting.

8. Load the knife blade.

9. Attach the Basswood to a StrongGrip Mat. For additional support apply masking tape to the edges.

10. Load the mat to the Cricut Maker by pressing the up/down arrow button. 

And press “C” to start the cutting process.

The cutting process does take some time.  For Basswood the machine will make about 14 passes.

Set it and you can walk away to work on other projects.

11.  Once the machine has made its designated number of passes check your piece to see it it’s fully cut.  If not press the “C” button to cut one more time until you have fully cut through the material.

12.  Once the pieces of the pen and phone holder is fully cut, remove the StrongGrip Mat and clear the cut pieces.

13. Lightly sand the pieces once it’s fully removed.

14.  Now assemble your wooden elephant pencil and phone holder.  Note the two larger rectangle pieces are the sides of the holder.  The smaller piece is the bottom of the pen/pencil holder.

When using Basswood, I recommend securing with some hot glue from the interior of the phone holder.  You can leave in it’s natural state or stain or paint it.

GET THE SVG FILE FOR CRICUT

SHARE MY DIY WOODEN ELEPHANT PENCIL AND PHONE HOLDER ON PINTEREST!

The Basswood does make a thinner phone and pencil holder.  So as an alternative I decided to make this using the 2mm heavy chipboard.

Chipboard Alternative

The steps are all the same as listed above except when selecting the material select Heavy Chipboard.  Cutting Chipboard takes a lot longer than cutting the Basswood.  So be patient.

I recommend breaking up the cuts and cut the side of the elephant one at a time.  Also, I found that breaking up the cut surprisingly reduced the overall cut time drastically.  My preference is to cut the phone /pencil holder using chipboard.  It provided a lot more stability than the Basswood.

You can paint this or apply a vinyl or wood veneer. The sky’s the limit.  Enjoy this multi-functional desk organizer now made with a Cricut.

Go cut something pretty! ~T.

https://tap.fit/rkiRzaasr