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Hi friends! My little Diva is starting a new school this year, and although she’s super excited about it, I know that she’s nervous too. Oh, she won’t admit to it, but we moms just know these things! 

She’s been busy organizing her school supplies, and she came up with a wonderful and extremely easy way to personalize them. It’s funny because I never would have thought of this, but when my daughter showed me how to decorate school supplies with washi tape, I thought it was the cutest craft ever.

So of course, I just had to share them with you!

washi tape covered pencils and binder clips and bookmark


Back in the Dark Ages when I was in grade school, we didn’t have washi tape or anything fancy for jazzing up school supplies. I think we were pretty much limited to fuzzy eraser tops and whatever art we created by drawing all over our folders and notebooks. But hey, somehow, we miraculously managed to survive.

Still, I think this is so cute. It almost makes me want to go back to school again so that I can enjoy pretty pencils and everything else. Well almost, but not quite — been there, done that!

So if you want to personalize your kids’ school supplies, or even your own school supplies with washi tape, I’ve got a quick and very easy tutorial for you.

Here are the supplies you’ll need

  • Washi tape or any patterned tape
  • Pencils
  • Note cards
  • Binder clips
  • Scissors
scissors and pencils and binder clips and note cards


For the pencils, my daughter just used long strips of washi tape to cover the entire pencil, from the eraser to the tip. Then, she cut the tape with scissors, and to make the edges neater, she sharpened the pencil with a pencil sharpener.

cover wood pencil with strips of washi tape


On one of the pencils, she just wound short strips of washi tape horizontally around the pencil.

washi tape pencils


She also made a bookmark by covering up a note card with strips of washi tape. It looks like a laminated bookmark, and since it’s nice and bright, my daughter has no trouble finding it.

washi tape bookmark


Plain binder clips are pretty boring, but the Diva made them a little bit better by wrapping small strips of tape around each clip.

washi tape binder clips


You could probably decorate binders, folders and pencil boxes with washi tape too, but we’re waiting to see what other school supplies we need before we go out and buy any more.

I don’t know about you, but I always like to hear from the teachers before I buy a bunch of stuff that we may not need. It just saves a little money, and I’m all about that, especially when we’re talking about back to school shopping for five kiddos!

At least my daughter will have no trouble knowing which school supplies belong to her, and I just may decide to decorate some of my office supplies with washi tape!

As always, thanks so much for your visit!

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  1. Dee M says:

    My daughter is obsessed with the stuff! 🙂

  2. Alison Dawn says:

    These are cute ideas!

  3. Mimi Mama says:

    Dee, my daughter is going to love you! Mimi xxx

  4. Valerie Lewis says:

    Very cute, we love washi tape in my house my 4 year old ends up using most of it haha.

  5. Dee M says:

    Thanks, Laurie! She had a lot of fun with this one. 😉

  6. Dee M says:

    There are so many different designs, so you can get really creative. 🙂

  7. Dee M says:

    I know all about the cool stuff, and this is a lot cheaper! 🙂

  8. Laurie says:

    Love this idea! Fun project for back to school!

  9. Stephanie Watkins says:

    Love this idea Dee. I end up spending so much money on the "cool" pens and notebooks. I'm going to have my daughter pick out awesome washi tape and decorate her own this year! pinned it!

  10. Steph @ Three Loud Kids! says:

    This is such a great way to personalize back to school. I'm going to have to do some of this with my daughter!