I have been searching for creative ways to use scraps and other crafting items from around my house to make a product that I can use in my everyday life. I came across a really cool idea, which was to make a phone holder out of random scrap pieces that I find laying around my house. We have many Popsicle sticks at our house so I chose to experiment with those and make phone holder out of them using hot glue to hold the sticks together. I wanted to find a way to add multiple uses to my idea so I chose to add siding to the phone holder and leave an open hole that I could run a cord through and use as a charging port. This project took me about two days to assemble and glue everything together and an additional day to add paint to it. In this instructable I am going to show you my step by step process that I used when creating this phone holder so that you can make this in your own home too.

Supplies

Popsicle sticks
Pencil
Pliers
Hot glue gun
Paint color of your choice
Paintbrush

Step 1: Cutting Up Popsicle Sticks

The first thing that you are going to want to do is count out the designated number of Popsicle sticks that you want to use for the side walls of your phone holder. I have an Iphone 8 which is rather larger in size so I used 17 Popsicle sticks on each side of my phone holder, but I found that that was a lot larger than it needed to be. This design can be made using any number of desired Popsicle sticks, so choose a good number that fits the sizing of your phone.

Next, you will be cutting off the rounded edges from the Popsicle sticks to make flat edges that make the sticks look like a rectangle shape. This will help make the gluing a lot easier and will make the edges fit right together.

Take your pencil and mark off on each stick how much you want to cut off on each end of the stick. I chose to cut off around 1/4 inch on each end of the stick maybe a little less. Do this until you get through your whole pile of Popsicle sticks.

I used pointed pliers to cut up my Popsicle sticks because I found that to work easier for me then using scissors, but sharp scissors work fine as well. Take your pliers/scissors and cut off each end of the Popsicle sticks. You will continue this step until you get through your whole pile of sticks. I found that this part of the process takes up most of the project time.

After you finish cutting the ends off of your Popsicle sticks you will be ready to assemble the side walls of the phone holder.

Step 2: Assembling Side Walls

After you have finished cutting off the ends of your Popsicle sticks, and have your big pile of sticks, split them into two piles, with half of them in one pile and half of them in another. These two piles of sticks will be used to make the side walls of your phone holder.

Take your hot glue gun, plug it in and warm it up. Take one of your piles of sticks and start gluing the sticks together long ways (vertically). Do this until you run out of sticks in both piles and you have two separate side walls like the first picture shown above.

After that, you will be making a flat plane to glue to each side wall, which will create the angle at which the phone stand will stand.

To do this, you will need to cut up more Popsicle sticks. Count out two more piles of Popsicle sticks that are equal in number to the piles that you used to create the side walls.

To make the flat planes, you will need to cut one end off of each stick, and then cut the necessary length off of each stick that you wish the flat plane to be. I cut sticks at about a 1 3/4 inch length and got two little sticks out of each Popsicle stick. Do this until you have two piles of little sticks that are the same amount as the number of sticks that you used for your side walls. In my case, I had two piles of 17 sticks.

Take each pile of sticks and again glue them together longways (vertically) to create the two flat planes that you will be using along with your side walls.

After your flat planes are made you will be gluing one of the flat planes to one of the side walls at the necessary angle that you wish for your phone stand to stand. See the second picture above for an example of what it will look like after the two are glued together. Do this twice to make two sides pieces.

Finally, to make the complete frame for the phone stand, glue across the top of one of the flat planes and stick the other flat plane on top of the one that has glue on it and glue those two together. See picture three for the final product.

Now you have the complete frame needed for the phone stand. You just need to add the lip part to the front and your phone stand will be complete!

Step 3: Adding Lip to Phone Stand

You are almost done creating a homemade phone stand out of scrap Popsicle sticks and all you need to do is add a lip to the front and your design will be complete!

To make the lip, choose a height that you would like it to be and start cutting out more popsicle sticks. I cut popsicle sticks at a 4 in length and a 2 1/4 in length to make the lip for my phone stand.

After you are finished cutting out the sticks for the lip of your phone stand, take your hot gun and glue all of the long sticks together longways and all of small sticks together longways to create two planes.

Glue the two planes together to create one big flat plane as seen in picture two above. Repeat the process to make a second big flat plane.

After the process is completed, glue the two planes together perpendicularly to make the lip part of your phone stand. Then glue the lip to the bottom part of the phone stand frame to create what is shown in picture three above.

Congratulations! You have now hopefully created a fully functional stand to hold your phone. If you just want to create a phone stand then skip the next step and go onto step 5, which is the painting step. If you would like to also add walls and a charging port to your phone stand then continue on to the next step.

Step 4: Adding Wall and Charging Port

To complete this step, you are first going to be creating a little wall to attach onto the left side of the lip that you made.

To start, grab the same number of Popsicle sticks that used in the previous step to create the height for your lip. Cut one end off of each stick and cut sticks to a length that will fill the necessary empty space on the left side of the lip. In my case, I cut five sticks at a length of 2 inches.

Take the sticks that you have cut out and glue them together longways. Then, take the wall piece that you have created and glue it to the left side of the lip on your phone stand. Make sure to glue vertically and horizontally where the wall piece meets the lip to make the piece nice and secure.

To finish off, you will be making a small box to attach to the remaining side of the lip to create the charging port. To create this, I cut two sticks at a length of 1 1/2 inch and two sticks at a length of 7/8 inch.

After this, you will take one of the longer sticks and hold it horizontally so that the long edge is facing you. Take each of the smaller sticks and glue one on each end of the bigger stick to create a U shape. Then to finish the box, glue the remaining long piece to the other end of the smaller sticks to create a box or an O shape.

Finally, you will glue the box that you just created to the remaining end of the lip to create the charging port. Make sure to again glue vertically and horizontally where the box meets the lip ensure that the piece stays secure.

The phone stand is now completed along with an added charging port and you are ready to add some nice color to it.

Step 5: Painting

You are almost completely done with your design and just need to add some color to it enhance it and make it look really nice.

Take your acrylic or craft paint color of choice and mix some paint in a bowl, box or painting plate, whatever you prefer.

Start painting your design, while making sure to get into all of the cracks between the Popsicle sticks, and also painting over top of the excess hot glue to blend it in as best as you can. I recommend that you paint of the parts of one side and let that dry for a while and then check back later and make sure it is dry before moving on to paint the other side.

After everything is done drying, put any finishing touches onto your design that you need to, but other than that your design is finally complete and you can enjoy a nice new homemade phone stand with an added charging port.