My mom is a teacher, my brother is a teacher and my husband is a teacher so I got a head start on Christmas gifts this year and made them all these cute Personalized Pencil Door Hangers for their classrooms out of pallet wood.
- Pallet OR lumber
- Tools - Saw, Sander and Drill
- Acrylic Paint - Yellow, Grey, Pink, and Black; Optional - White
- Paint Brushes
- Thin Paint Brush
- Spray Clear Gloss OR Mod Podge
- Twine
- Scissors
- Optional - print out a cute saying and packaging tape
UPDATE: I made more pencils as teacher gifts and had to buy wood from Lowes. We bought a piece of wood that was 1 x 5 x 6 for about $8. This will make three 20" Pencils with a little left over. They must of raised the price because it cost five something when we bought it for our Growth Chart Ruler. Also this wood absorbs the paint more then the pallet wood did so you will need to apply a few coats of paint but the pencils look nicer and more clean. If you want the rustic look then try to find a pallet. *pictured at bottom
How To:
1. Using a saw, cut about a 20" slab off a pallet.
2. Sketch were you want your pencil point to be and cut it with the saw.
3. Using a sander, sand the wood. Make sure to sand all of the edges to remove any loose/pointed pieces. Remember it will be in a classroom and you don't want any students accidentally getting a splinter from touching it. You can use sand paper if needed, it will just take longer.
4. Once the wood is ready it is time to paint it. I started by outlining where I wanted the yellow paint to start and stop. Then I filled it in with yellow. You may need to apply a few coats of yellow since it is a light color.
5. I then made a grey line to represent the metal on a real pencil. My grey line was the width of my paint brush.
6. Paint the rest of the end a light pink to for the eraser. Don't forget the edges!
7. Paint the point of the pencil with black paint.
I rounded the point on my pencils but you can make it straight or jagged if you prefer. I also added a small white line on the tip on my pencil to make the black stand out more but you don't have to. Let Dry.
8. Once your paint is dry you can personalize the pencil with a teacher's name.
The acrylic paint I used dried pretty fast so I didn't have to wait for mine to dry. I free handed the names I put on my pencils. If you aren't comfortable doing that you can use a pencil and lightly write the name/font on the pencil to make sure it fits then go over it with black paint. I used black paint and a thin paint brush for my names. You can use whatever color or font you prefer. Let Dry.
UPDATE: I recently personalized some pencils with a black paint pen and it was so much easier to personalize and it didn't take as much time. You can also check out step 5 on my blog Thankful Wood Centerpiece for a cool trick to personalizing crafts.
9. After my pencils had dried, I had my husband drill two small holes at the top so I could hang them. You can drill the holes before or after you paint your pencils.
10. Once the paint is dry and the holes have been drilled I applied a clear gloss to the front of the pencil to lock in the paint. It also added a nice shiny finish to the pencil. You can use any type of gloss finish, satin finish, mod podge or just a plain waterproof finish to lock in your paint. Let Dry.
11. I used twine to hang my pencils. I doubled the twine to make it thicker, stuck it through the drill holes and tied a knot. You can also use ribbon or wire depending on what look you are going for.
12. I then found a cute saying that had to do with pencils, printed it out and used clear packaging tape to secure it to the back of my pencil. This is optional of coarse, but adds to it.
The hardest part of making the pencils was cutting and sanding the wood followed by not messing up when I painted the names. Overall I think this was a pretty easy craft to make but that was because I enjoyed making it. I can't wait to give theses as gifts and see what everybody thinks about them. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Below is a picture of a few pencils I made using wood from Lowes. It cost more per pencil but the pencils looked a lot nicer, plus I was having trouble finding thick pallet's that were long enough without having nail holes in them so I think I will be sticking to Lowe's wood if I make anymore pencil door hangers.
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