Recycle pencils

Growing up, there was a junk drawer in my parents’ kitchen populated by all the usual suspects: bent paperclips, snapped rubber bands, crumpled post-it notes. By far the most prevalent objects in the drawer, however, were pencils. There were the stubs of pencils much-used, broken pencils, pencils with empty tips where the graphite had broken inside and fallen out so far down it would have taken much careful sharpening that no one had time for to restore. Whenever the junk drawer was cleaned out they would get thrown away, but if this is the case for you, there is another way. You can recycle pencils and give your old pencils new life with these awesome craft projects:

1. Colored Pencil Jewelry
Recycle pencils

This project works especially well with colored pencils, but any pencil will do. I know I had some very cool-looking and colorful non-colored pencils as a kid that would have been great for this project! Simply cut the pencils and drill a hole through them to make beads, or clue them together in different shapes to make brooches. These cool baubles would make great gifts for teachers, artists, and pencil afficionados  as well.

2. Eraser Stamps
stamps
Oh, this rarest of circumstances – when a pencil is worn down or broken, yet the eraser is intact! This is the perfect time to (very carefully) carve those erasers to make tiny stamps with neat designs. Decorate stationery, letters and postcards, homework, memos, even your hands! Just make sure you’re using washable ink if you’re stamping something you don’t wish to bear the mark of your really awesome eraser stamp for all eternity.

3. Picture Frames
Recycle pencils
You can also construct cool picture frames using your old pencils. You can keep it uniform by cutting pencils to the appropriate size, or you can get creative. Try cutting pencils down to various sizes and gluing them around a plain frame with the tips pointing outward, for example. You don’t just need to frame photographs, either! Artwork the kids bring home from school, awards, and even letters are all frame-worthy as well.

How do you put your used/broken pencils to new uses? Let us know in the comments!

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