Ghibli Organizers

I started making these as planters but realized they would make awesome pencil cups as well!

So I modified them a little and added more decorating around the bases to turn them into cute Ghibli character pencil cups.

Patterns are formatted with No Face and Jiji together and Totoro and Calcifer together.

Supplies

• Plastic water or soda bottles-I used 1 liter bottles
• Scissors and/or xacto knife
• Marker
• Paint and brushes
• Printed character patterns- Pay need to print full page instead of to fit.
• Rocks or sand (optional)
• Hot glue (optional)

Step 1: Cutting

• Measure 3" up from the bottom all the way around and cut the bottle apart. Using a heated xacto blade helps to start this process.
• Once cut apart select your character(s) and print out the corresponding pattern page, you may need to specify that it print full page and not fit to page or it can shrink the pattern, as long as it wraps around your full bottle you should be good.
• Cut out pattern and fit inside the top part of your bottle. Line the top part of the pattern (ears or top of face) with the cut edge of your bottle. If your bottle is kinda wonky tack the pattern in with a few pieces of tape to keep it in place.
• Trace the whole pattern on including the line around the bottle and the inner details.
• Cut the bottle along the outer bold line. Scissors work well for most of these but you may want to trim a line around the shape and go back in after to cut the details- ex. Calcifer's fire wisps are much easier to cut out if you cut a rounded triangle around him then cut the wisp shapes.

Step 2: Painting

• If you have any sort of a base or primer paint- I used gesso-put down a layer over your whole pattern area. This will help your paint colors to show without having to put down 7 layers, and should still let you see the pattern through. If you don't have a primer that's okay you'll just have to put more paint layers.
• Once the primer layer is dry paint in solid colors then add the details.

For the bottom sections I painted the characters' surroundings or 'clothes' but you could also paint them any solid color or pattern and they would turn out just as well.

Totoro- to make grass get some green paint on your brush and starting from the bottom, swipe up, lifting your brush as you go. Swooshing them over each other and overlapping make it look more windswept.

Calcifer- to make the hearth Calcifer sits in,

Jiji- for Jiji's red bow paint two large red ovals, a little wider on the outer ends and connect with a smaller ball in the center.

No face- I surrounded No face with piles of gold since he has so much. To stay simplistic I painted the whole bottom a gold/yellow and the rest of the top part the same with gold coin bumps around the rim. You could also add some black or darker yellow bumps on the bottom to make it look more pile-of-gold-like.

Step 3: Fill (optional)

If you want your cup to be a little sturdier, maybe you have a ruthless cat who enjoys knocking everything off your desk, or just a lot of pens that might tip over, you can fill the bottom.

Step 4: