Colored Pencil Home Accents

Do you have tons of old colored pencils? Whole ones, half ones, little pieces of pencils? Hey, gather them all up and get creative. No, not back to the drawing board; use them as colorful home accents. With a small saw or sharp knife you can easily turn lots of colored pencils into unusual but decorative accents around your house.

One thing you can make in little time - and it ends up being quite impressive - is an art piece. Make a wall hanging by starting with a simple canvas. Paint the canvas any color you want and even frame it if you desire. When your canvas is ready simply start gluing on colored pencils. Start by attaching a whole pencil, right next to the left side, and position it so that the lead of the pencil is pointing upwards. Align the bottom of the pencil with the bottom of the canvas. Choose another color of pencil, cut a half-inch off of it, and glue it right next to the first pencil. Continue adding another color, and another, but cutting a half-inch off of each one. The diminishing sizes of colored pencils makes a nice wall hanging and can be paired with similar a similar piece, like a canvas featuring pencils of all the same size, or a canvas displaying the diminishing pencils, but going from right to left this time.

When you cut just the lead part off of a colored pencil you can make cool and colorful borders on all sorts of things. Frame a cabinet door, a picture frame, a mirror frame, or even a cornice. Or, glue the pencils - without their points - around a can or a box to make a pencil or utensil holder.

Colored pencils can be turned into nice table runners when you tie them together. Cut three strings to be three times as long as you want the runner to be. Fold each string in half, and lay them on a table so that all the folds face away from you. Slide the first pencil into the folds of the string, then tie each string around it, with one tie on each end of the pencil, and one tie in the center. Continue slipping the next colored pencil between the strings, below the previous pencil, and tying all three strings on it. When the runner is as long as you desire, tie the strings one last time - in knots - and trim off the excess.

Make coasters from colored pencils by cutting several of them to be five inches long, each. Align the pencils on a 5"x5" piece of craft foam and glue them in place.

Get out those old colored pencils and see what ideas you can come up with for using them around the house. You'll enjoy the colorful arrangements you can make and attach to everything from lampshades, to baskets, to headboards.