Back to school. Yes. It is coming. For you. Or it already has?? Going back to school was always about 75% scary/stressful/no don’t make me go and 25% exciting/yay I get to see my friends/have something to do other than Netflix. At least that’s how I saw going back to school each year. It seems to get more stressful the older you got, especially once you were in college and had to deal with physically moving all your stuff. I do not miss those parts of going back to school, but I do miss certain things that I don’t get now that I am working and out of school (for now).

One of those things I do miss is being able to buy all new school supplies before the academic year starts. In grade school you would get a list sent to you with everything you might need, including things such as crayons! Crayons! My mom would load us all up in the car and take us to Staples to pick out new binders, folders, pens, pencils, and anything else we might think we would need.

We would roam the aisles looking for our favorite colored binder or the assignment book that had the best cover. Everything was so shiny and new and smelled like office supplies. It made me maybe an extra 10% more excited to start the school year.

We thought we would share this simple painted wooden pencil DIY with you all to get you eager about the approaching school year, or to just keep in your office or at home for pretty decoration/use. This DIY adds a fun flare to the regular yellow number 2 pencil so you can write in style. Plus, it is completely customizable so you can decorate your pencils to your binders, notebooks, even your outfit! It’s all up to you!

What you will need:

• Different colors of acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• Water cup
• Scotch blue painters tape

Ombre: To ombre the pencils we used a color (such as pink, blue, or green) and white paint. We squirted out some of the color and then started to paint the top of the pencil with that color. Once we were about a third of the way down the pencil we mixed the color with a little bit of white to get that faded effect and painted that onto the pencil, blending it a little with the previous color. We kept adding more white to the color to get the shade lighter and lighter and added that onto the pencil. Once you are happy with the results leave the pencil to dry completely before using.

You can also fade or ombre two colors together as we did with this blue and green. Just start with the blue at one end and the green at the other and use the same lightening trick by adding white paint to each. Once you are in the middle just blend the two colors together so it looks coherent. This may take a few tries or a few coats but be patient and it’ll look awesome!

Color block: To color block the pencil we used painters tape to mark off the edges of each stripe. For the first stripe you can just put the tape however far along the pencil you want your first color to be. Then paint it in! We did two coats because we wanted it to be more opaque. Let dry completely before taking the tape off, otherwise the paint will rip off or smudge. For the second stripe, use the tape to block off the end of the first stripe. You’ll need the first stripe to be completely dry before putting tape over it or you’ll peal the paint off when you peal the tape up. Also put tape on the pencil where you want the second stripe to end.  Paint the part in between the tape and continue taping/painting for however many stripes you want!

We played around with different styles of painting the wooden pencils and liked the ombre effect and the color block effect the best, but feel free to take the creative reigns on this project and paint whatever inspires you! Both of these methods were really easy to do and we had a lot of fun making them; it got us in the mood to pack up our stuff and make a visit back to Skidmore College!