DIY Chevron Pencil Cup

This chevron pencil cup is so easy to make!  The Dollar Tree has these wire pencil cups every time I go.  I love the shape, the mesh, and the size.  I have other craft ideas for these: outdoor tea light lanterns, planters, picnic organizers...

To decorate your own pencil cup you need minimal materials:

1)  You need nail polish (Dollar Tree has lots of great colors and they are only $1.)
2)  A pencil cup

Tape is optional.  The tape is really unnecessary since the wire on the pencil cup makes a grid you can follow for your design.  I tried taping a bunch of designs on my cups and the tape just seemed to make the painting take longer.

Go ahead and get crazy with your colors!  If you make a mistake you can remove it with nail polish remover.  This craft is easy for kids because they can choose from many colors and the mistakes can be easily removed.  I painted my cups on the back steps as smelling nail polish for that amount of time was nauseating.

To create the chevron pattern:

1) Decide how many diamonds (from the wire grid) each chevron should cover.  Mine were two diamonds wide and six diamond long (including the point of the chevron).

2)  Start with your first full sized chevron at the top of the pencil cup.

3)  Work your way down the pencil cup changing colors for each new chevron.  (Count down the width of the chevron to start at the bottom point of the new chevron.  Then, count out from the point of the chevron, painting as you go.)

4)  Go back in to fill in any incomplete chevrons at the top and bottom of the cup.

5)  Add a border to the chevron to really make the shape pop!

Have fun! Want to see my other nail polish inspired craft?  These dragonflies are over a year old and still looking great!