DIY Muji colored pencil tube

What happens when you have a plain cardboard canister and an afternoon of procrastinating?

I have a lot of personal projects brewing in my head all the time but I usually have no time motivation to act on them… except when I’m procrastinating on more important tasks at hand.

Last year, I bought mini colored pencils from Muji, a Japanese lifestyle brand with beautiful, minimalist, and “unbranded” household/stationery/travel/furniture/clothing products. The colored pencils came in an unmarked brown Kraft tube– perfect for personalizing, I thought, as with everything else Muji sells. It took me a few months before I thought of what to do with it, and when I did, I used my Letraset Tria markers.

Three nibs in one marker!

What’s special about these markers is when used right, they blend very nicely and you can layer and mix colors and they’d come out looking like watercolors. I’ve had my eye on these markers since college, but couldn’t afford it with my college student allowance. I was only able to afford it when I started working, but then I had no time to do anything with the markers, so I held off on buying them. It was only early last year that I finally went and purchased them. Let me tell you, it’s a good feeling to be able to work for something you’ve wanted for a long time but couldn’t buy before with your own money :)

This is how I used those markers. I’m still trying to get the hang of working with this medium.

I thought I’d make a Japanese kokeshi doll since the stout canister shape was perfect for it and because the pencils are from a Japanese brand. Nice logic, no? Haha

Oops… that year under my name is supposed to be 2012, not 2011.

The coloring could be better/smoother, but for a first try, I don’t think it’s that bad :P

This short tube of pencils is perfect for traveling and on-the-go drawing, which is why I purchased them in the first place. It holds 30+ pencils with room inside for a small sharpener (non-Muji, which I bought separately). I went back to Muji yesterday to maybe pick up a few more tubes of pencils I can dress up but unfortunately, the short tubes were out of stock. They had the tall canisters of 60, full-length colored pencils but they were too pricey at Php 1,000++. Better grab the short ones next time you see it in stores so you can also DIY and customize it :)