Recycled polka dot pencil pot 

You will need:

1 empty glass jar

Tea towel

PVA glue

Poster paints (red, blue, yellow, and white)

Paint brush

1 empty egg carton

Cotton buds

Steps 1: Soak the jar in water for 30 minutes to remove any labels.

Step 2: Wash the jar out in warm soapy water to make sure it’s sparkling clean and dry it in a tea towel.

Step 3: Mix some white glue with double the amount of PVA glue in a section of the egg carton. You will need a lot of white to paint the outside of the jar.

Step 4: Using the brush, carefully paint the outside of the jar with some of the white glue paint and using the brush and leave it for a little while to dry.

Step 5: Using the same method as with the white, mix a little of each of the coloured paints with glue in different sections of the egg carton. Remember you can mix the paints to make new colours — red and blue make purple, yellow and blue make green, red and yellow make orange, red and white make pink.

Step 6: Dip a cotton bud into the paint and then press it onto the jar to make little dots on the outside of the jar. Make sure to hold the jar steady at the rim so that you don’t smudge your dots.

Step 7: Make simple shapes such as flowers, hearts or stars using the dots of paint and outline these with dots of paint in different colours, or use the dots of paint to make stripes around the outside of the jar.

Step 8: Allow the jar to dry thoroughly.

Step 9: Fill your finished pencil pots with your pens and pencils!