Pencil Box Craft with Gemstones

This pencil box craft with gemstones is fun for kids to make. My kid loves her DIY pencil box and it's an easy hot glue gun craft.

This project features three things that we love the most in our home: 1) organizing, 2) shiny gemstones and 3) a hot glue gun. It really captures my little crafter's spirit.

It's no secret that she is a craft supplies hoarder. Me too. To help organize all our small crafty supplies, we love these stacking pencil cases. I use them to store my sewing supplies, and she uses them to store beads, gemstones, popsicle sticks, pom poms and more. You can even see how we turned these staking pencil cases into teacher gift boxes.

My crafter is also loves her hot glue gun. Last year, she traded all her Halloween candy with me for a hot glue gun. She crafts with it all the time, like when she made these DIY Bow Hair Clips. It's also become a favorite birthday gift that we give her friends.

One afternoon, she wandered around the house with her pencil box full gemstones in one hand, and her hot glue gun in her pocket. We often find gems glued on random things around the house. For example, she's glued gemstones to her desk legs, to board game pieces, and even on planter pots. She loves the shiny!

After looking around for things to hot glue gemstones to, the pencil box top caught her attention. She sat down, got to work, and the final result turned out super cute.

I loved it so much that she made me a special box too. A few weeks later, we also made these gemstone pencil boxes at her crafting birthday party with her friends.

Supplies and Equipment for Pencil Box Craft

Our favorite stacking pencil box case

You can find a lot of different pencil boxes to do crafts with. Our favorite is to buy directly from Michaels, and I buy the bulk pack of 12. If you don't need that many, Amazon also sells them in a bundle of two or a rainbow pack of six.

Do I need colorful hot glue gun sticks?

Colorful hot glue gun sticks work best for this craft pencil case because you can see the color of the hot glue underneath the lid. Plus, kids love it that much more when the glue comes out glittery and colorful.

What size acrylic gemstones works best?

Gemstones that are larger work best for little kids to hot glue. It's less likely they will burn their little fingers if you use 1" gemstones. Also, it gives more surface area for the hot glue to stick.

kids hot glue gun craft with gemstones and pencil box

How to Make Craft Pencil Box

This craft pencil box is so easy for kids to make.

First, write a name or whatever else you would like on the label. It's easier to write the label first, before you stick it on the pencil box.

Next, find the gemstones you want to use for your craft pencil box. My little crafter laid out all the gemstones on the lid first, before gluing them down. That way she could color coordinate and make sure all the gemstones fit.

When gluing the gemstones, try to place the big gems first. Then the little gems can be used as space filler. She also found it easier to place the hot glue directly on the lid, then place the gemstone down. It requires more fine motor skills, and it's easier to burn fingers, if you place place the hot glue on the back of the gemstone.