DIY Pen Holder for Notebooks You Can Make in 5 Minutes

This post may contain affiliate links.

It’s no secret that I love my Bullet Journal. It has made my life much more organized. And I love my fancy Stabilo pens to use in it.

But I needed some way to have several different colored pens available with my journal at all times. So I came up with this easy DIY pen holder! It not only looks cool but will work with any notebook.

DIY Pen Holder Materials:

• ⅝” wide elastic ribbon in any color or design you’d like. I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby
• Scissors
• Thread
• Needle

No, really that’s it.

Unless it’s ready to go, don’t even think about getting the sewing machine out. You’ll be done with this project in the time it would take to get it out of the closet and set it up.

The principle is simple, cut a piece of the elastic ribbon so that it goes around the length of the cover of your notebook while stretched a little, and add a quarter inch.

For my A5 sized Leuchtturm 1917, I cut a 15” section of elastic making sure not to stretch it.

Now the size of the little ribbon to hold your pen will depend on your pen. My favorite Stabilo pens are very thin, so the length of the elastic band that holds them was only 1 ½ inch.

You may need to fiddle around with the size to get just the right grip on your favorite pen but that’s pretty simple.

Overlap the ends of the long band about a quarter inch and sew them together in a square.

At the opposite end of the spot you just sewed together, wrap the little piece of elastic around the long piece and sew it to the long band making sure not to sew the front of it because that’s where the pen is going to go.

Here’s the back of the band when it’s all sewn up.

Now wrap your band around the cover of your notebook, slide your pen inside and voila!

You have a super chic DIY pen holder! Now make 2 or 3 or as many more as you like.

These would make a great gift for any friend who loves to journal. But they’d also work around the cover of a 3-ring binder for school. The kiddos could practice sewing and add a splash of color to their own school supplies.

Be sure to check out to my 5 Essentials to Start Your Bullet Journal the Right Way blog post and the 3 Beautiful Printable Calendars for Your Bullet Journal post, as well as my collection of fun printable calendars and habit trackers, to make your life more organized.