Learn how to easily make a personalized teacher pencil sign with scrap wood, a Cricut, and some paint. Quick and cherished teacher gift idea!
This post is sponsored by Cricut, however, all project ideas and opinions are my own.
I love wood working and also love my Cricut, so I thought I’d fuse both of those together for this quick and easy teacher gift idea!
I’ve been seeing a lot of the wooden pencil signs on Pinterest lately and now that teacher appreciation is coming up, I knew it was finally time to make one.
And it was so much quicker and easier than I even thought! With just a few cuts with my miter saw on a scrap piece of wood I had, I was able to put this personalized teacher pencil sign together in under an hour (and that includes drying time!) with the help of my Cricut.
These wooden pencil signs can be customized in so many ways between what color you can paint them, to what decorations you want to put on them, and then also what color vinyl to use. A teacher can hang the DIY teacher sign on their door or have it stand on a desk or shelf!
Materials Needed for DIY Teacher Pencil Sign
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- Cricut cutting machine – either the Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air 2 – find out which Cricut is for you here
- wood – I’m using a 2×6 that is 17 inches long
- paint – chalk paint or acrylic
- Cricut permanent vinyl
- transfer tape
- cardstock if making flowers
- orbital sander or sandpaper
- miter saw or jigsaw
- Cricut tools
- Cricut mat
Cutting a Wooden Pencil Sign
If you are anything like me (or know someone like me) that is a craft supply hoarder, then finding a scrap piece of wood for this project will probably be pretty easy!
I have a huge stash of all different sizes of scrap wood that are leftover from my various woodworking projects like when I built a farmhouse table or applied farmhouse window trim. No judgements please…lol!
I grabbed a piece of 2×6 wood and used my miter saw to cut one end into a pencil point.
I marked the middle point of the wood, set up my miter saw to 50 degrees and cut so the blade intersected at the middle.
Then I flipped it over and cut the same angle on the other side so I had a point.
My pencil sign ended up being 17 inches long. Once you have the size of pencil you want, make sure to sand it so it’s nice and smooth.
Painting a Teacher Pencil Sign
Once the wooden pencil sign is all smooth, it’s time to paint it (or stain it if you like!). The pencil doesn’t even need to be yellow, you can paint it in your school colors or the teacher’s favorite colors.
I grabbed some paints from my stash and ended up using a mustard chalk paint and an acrylic pink pearl paint for the eraser.
I drew a wavy line where the sharpened point would start and painted up to the line.
Leave a few inches at the end to paint an eraser. Since I will be cutting out a piece of vinyl for the metal piece, the area where the yellow and pink paint meet doesn’t need to be straight.
Paint black on the end for the pencil tip.
How to Decorate the DIY Teacher Sign
While the pencil sign is drying, it’s time to cut out the decorations for the DIY teacher sign.
My son’s teacher loves succulents, so I decided to cut out some 3D succulents to add to the pencil. You can cut out any type of flower or not put any flowers on at all. Totally up to you!
If you are new to Cricut and would like to know more about what these amazing machines can do, make sure to check out my Ultimate Guide to Cricut Ideas.
I found a few succulents in Cricut Access and cut them out. They were about 2.5-3 inches wide. The image numbers I used are #M102B512, #M103643E, and #MFAD730.
I used a few different colors of green cardstock and one purple and cut out all of the layers of the succulent flowers with my Cricut Maker.
Putting Together Paper Succulents
For the cactus paper flower, you’ll need to roll the middle just like when making Cricut roses. Put the end in a quilling tool and roll it until just the little flap is left.
Add some glue to the end flap and press it down over the rolled edges.
Glue the larger part of the cactus together by adding some glue to the flap (I added a bit too much!).
I ended up cutting a little bit off of the bottom after it was glued together so it was flat on the bottom and easier to glue on the wood sign.
For the stackable paper succulents, I dabbed a little bit of purple ink from an ink pad on the edges to give them a little depth. But again, totally optional!
Then I used my fingers to bend the ends of the petals up. Then just add a little bit of glue to the center and place the next layer so that the petals are in between each other.
Keep gluing on the layers until it looks like a succulent!
Adding Decorations to the Wood Pencil Sign
I had made a long rectangle (0.5 inch wide by 11.5 inches long and then a smaller 0.5 x 5 one so it would wrap all the way around the wooden pencil) in Cricut Design Space and cut them out of metallic adhesive vinyl.
I just used my fingers to pull the strip off and place it directly on the wood where the pink and yellow paint met.
Then I used my hot glue gun to glue the paper succulents where I wanted them on the sign.
Once I glued on the succulents, I measured the area I had left for the teacher’s name which was about 7 inches. I used text boxes in CDS and attached everything together and then cut out of permanent black adhesive vinyl.
Weed off the extra vinyl. Then apply transfer tape to the vinyl, scrape it down well, pull it off the backing and place it on the wooden pencil where you want it.
Scrape it down well and then pull off the transfer tape. And you’re done!
I might pair this teacher pencil sign with one of my custom succulent pots to give as a gift to my son’s teacher during teacher appreciation week.
Add one of our printable thank you teacher cards if you are giving this teacher gift later in the year.
It came out so cute and I only used supplies I had on hand, so win win!
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Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
