Teachers, students and parents are all getting ready for back to school, and writing utensils are of course a back to school essential. If you want to add a little flair to your pencils, here is a super easy project that the kids can do together to prepare themselves for the year. All you need for this DIY is a box of number 2 pencils and some of your favorite nail polish colors. Decorating pencils is a great way for your kids to express their creative side with only a few materials. Before you begin, you may want to set out a bit of newspaper or scraps just in case any nail polish spills! 

Start by taping off the metal part of the pencil with painters tape to create a smooth line when you are adding the color. This is optional, but it may be helpful for the little ones. We generally chose darker colors of nail polish so that we would have to use fewer coats of paint, but you can choose any colors that stand out to you. Nail polish dries really quickly, so painting should be a breeze. Each pencil has about 3 coats of nail polish. After decorating pencils with nail polish, you can add more accents with washi tape or markers. As you can see, we used this as an opportunity to add more glitter and metallic details. We wrote little inspirational messages on our pencils in gold sharpie. This is something that you will be using every day, so have fun with your afternoon of decorating pencils! 

Browse all of our back to school projects for more inspiration, including our felt pencil toppers or pencil pouches. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for daily glimpses into our DIY makes. Best of luck to all this school year! ~ Lia