Back to School Party DIYs: Pencil Forks & Notebook Paper Napkins

If you caught the full Back to School Party post, you already saw a few photos of these. Today I’m sharing the how-to for my two favorite details: pencil forks and notebook paper napkins. Both use supplies you may already have in your craft stash, and the napkins take about 4 minutes each — seriously, that fast. Grab your acrylic paint and fabric paint pens, and let’s get into it.

First up: Forks painted to look like pencils.

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Pencil Fork Supplies

• Wood forks
• Acrylic paint in yellow, black, silver, tan and pink
• Painter’s tape or washi tape
• Small, flat paint brushes

Painted Pencil Forks Instructions

Painting the pencil forks is easy; it just takes a little patience while you (literally) wait for paint to dry.

1 – Tape off the top of your fork (closest to the tines). Leave a gap, then tape under the gap. Paint that area pink. That is your eraser.

2 – Leave a gap at the bottom of the fork, then tape above it. Paint that area black. That is your pencil lead.

3 – Once the pink paint is completely dry, tape over it. Leave a narrow gap, then tape under the gap. Paint the gap silver. That is the metal the holds the eraser.

4 – Once the black paint is completely dry, tape over it. Leave a gap, then tape above the gap. Paint the gap tan. That is the wood of the pencil.

5 – Once the tan and silver paint are completely dry, tape over them. You should have a large gap. Paint that gap yellow. That is the body of the pencil.

Two tips: Make sure to (1) press your tape down firmly and (2) paint by pouncing instead of in strokes. These two steps will help prevent paint from leaking under your tape.

You can also tape several forks in a line and paint multiple forks at a time, which is what I did. And of course, you could paint knives and forks to look like pencils also.

I used two brushes, washing and alternating them in between colors. If you do this, press the water out of your brushes with a paper towel so your next color of paint doesn’t become too thin.

In the end, I touched up a few spots and decided to paint the edges and backs yellow.

One safety note: don’t paint too far up the handle, since you don’t want your guests to get paint in their mouth. 

Here is a finished, painted fork.

And then I started thinking… would the paint pens I bought for the napkin project work on the wood forks? I got it a shot. I’d assumed the paint pen might bleed on the wood fork, and it did the tiniest bit, but not enough to notice. So I painted a whole fork with the paint pens, just free-handing it.

Ya’ll, this was easy and faster. I also didn’t have to paint the edges or back of the fork to hide paint bleed. It wasn’t perfect, but neither was the paint brush method. The paint pens are also buildable, so start with the light colors, then add the dark. Touch up as needed.

Food for thought. Now for the notebook paper napkins.

Notebook Paper Napkin Supplies

• White cotton napkins
• Paint pens suitable for fabric (blue and red)
• Ruler
• Small circle (I used a piping bag coupler)
• Cardboard or something else to keep paint from bleeding through the napkin (I used a paper bag)

Notebook Paper Napkin Instructions

These napkins go really quickly, about 4 minutes per napkin.

1 – Keep your napkin folded in a rectangle. Slip the cardboard in between the top layer of napkin and the rest.

2 – Position the ruler vertically on the left side of the napkin. Use the red paint pen to draw a vertical line down the right side of the ruler.

3 – Position the ruler horizontally at the top of the napkin. Use the blue paint pen to draw a horizontal line from the left of the red line to the opposite side of the napkin.

4 – Move the ruler down and draw more blue lines until you reach the bottom of the napkin. Try to keep the spacing even.

5 – Position the small circle at the top left of the red line and draw a circle. 

6 – Move the circle to the middle left of the red line and draw a circle. Move the circle the bottom left of the red line and draw a circle. 

Let me know in the comments if you have questions. These were really fun to make!