Here's a great idea for brightening up dull old pens using salt dough sculpture. You will need: Pen Flour Salt Water Mixing bowl Cling film

Start off by taking an ordinary pen and wrapping it in a couple of layers of cling film. The idea is to make sure that the nib part isn't covered.

Pop the pen, nib down, into a ball of modelling clay so that the clay comes up to the cling film.

Next, you'll need two cups of flour, one cup of water and one cup of salt. These are the ingredients for salt dough!

To make it, empty the contents of the cups into a large bowl and mix them together.

When you've finished mixing the dough, you can start sculpting. Grab a handful and mould it into a sausage shape to wrap around the pen.

The idea is to mould it so that it's a bit fatter nearer the top.

Next, mould some features out of the dough.

Here's a quick tip - if you dab water on using a paintbrush, it acts as a sort of glue for the smaller detail.

Use a cocktail stick to add detail.

The other thing that's good about salt dough is it dries itself. When it has dried, it'll look a bit like this.

All you have to do then is paint!

And there are loads of design possibilities. How about a witch?

Or maybe an elephant?

Or how about a rocket?

Or an ice cream? Try it yourself!