Washi Tape Pencils

Always keep track of your colored pencils by giving them them own custom decorations!

Posted by Dani A.

About

This DIY is all thanks to an adorable conversation I had with the young boy of a friend, who was lamenting on how his pencil’s always get stolen at school because they get all mixed up. His mother suggested putting his name on each pencil with a label maker, but Ugh. How boring!

I had a packet of coloured pencils lying around looking equally as boring and lame, so I decided to give them a little personality and maybe give her some ideas to ensure all of his pencils always come home safely.

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You Will Need (4 things)

  • Colored Pencils
  • Washi Tape
  • Scissors
  • Pencil Sharpener or exacto Knife

Steps (3 steps, 15 minutes)

  1. 1

    Start by pairing up your pencils with a matching tape. As Washi tape can be relatively see-through (especially your lighter colours) you will want to put similar or darker colours onto your pencil.

    Take your tape and cut the end diagonally across the tape leaving a triangular shape.

    Line the diagonal edge around the top of the pencil, along where the pencil tip begins. Wrap the tape around to create a flush line around the tip.

  2. 2

    Gently pull the tape tight and slowly and carefully twist the pencil so the tape continues to wrap around, travelling down the pencil as you twist.

    After a couple of turns you will be able to see if the tape is going to cover the pencil evenly. You will need to experiment with how much to angle this cut depending on how you want to wrap. For example, some of my pencils I left a gap in between the twist to leave the under colour showing through, for the patterned tapes I preferred to overlap so that the pattern was solid the whole length of the pencil. Washi tape sticks quite well, so don’t worry if you need to pull it off and try again once or twice. Just take your time so you don’t crease the tape.

    Smooth the tape as you twist and continue until you reach the bottom of the pencil.

    Once you reach the end, line up the base of the pencil and pull out and cut the tape around 3cm from the end. Then cut a diagonal line like we did in step 1 so that the tape wraps around the base neatly.

  3. 3

    Smooth any bumps as necessary. If you find the tip is a little messy you can trim it by sharpening it with a (sharp) pencil sharpener or neaten it up with an exacto knife.

    Repeat with all of your pencils until you have a whole set of unique and fun pencils!