Pencil and treat holder for a Disney cruise stateroom door

Last week I shared the fabric Disney pin trading board that I made for our upcoming Disney cruise. This is just one of several crafts that I have in mind to add a little more fun to our Disney cruise, and this week I finished off another - a pencil and treat holder for our stateroom door!

We are sailing on a Halloween themed cruise, and while we were in the US last year I stocked up on some Halloween treats that I intended to use as Pixie Dust - little gifts to hand out to other travellers. But then I spotted some treat holders online and decided that I'd like to make my own to share some of the treats via our door for passers by to grab!

The treat holder was very simple to make. I made a backing strip from black fabric which had a layer of interfacing inside to make it a little stiffer. Then I used a second strip of fabric (or you could use thick ribbon) and sewed it to the black background using a series of rows of stitches, each one about 1.5cm apart. This makes loops of narrow pockets (mine has 17) which you can use to hold all sorts of things. It's attached to the door with a ribbon loop over a strong magnetic hook (I really hope that mine is strong enough!), as all door decorations need to be magnetic.

Many people use these holders to hold lollipops, but they can also be used for pencils, glow stickers, candy canes, reusable straws or long thin candy. Because we are flying in for our cruise I wanted to use something small and light so I'm mainly going to use pencils, but if we are able to stop at a supermarket before we board I may buy a big bag of lollies too. I also have lots of little plastic spiders which I can hang from a strip of lace at the bottom or from the pencils themselves.

I've not done this before so I've no idea how popular it will be! I hope that everything doesn't disappear within the first day - if it starts to go quickly I might bring it inside for a day or two to restock. If I'm left with anything I'll pop it into the Fish Extender pockets on people's doors on the last sea day of the cruise, as I don't want to be bringing them home with me.

Like the pin trading board my hanger has a Halloween theme as we are taking a Halloween on the High Seas cruise. But it can easily be changed to suit any season by adding some different stickers and ribbon so I can use it again on any future cruises that I'm lucky enough to take!

You can read about more ways to add some magical extras to a Disney cruise here!