DIY for Environmentalists: Crafting, Making, Project How-to's, and more!
Set each piece aside to dry, well away from the others–I tend to stain a whole rainbow of toys at one time, and if one of my yellow blocks touches one of my red blocks while they’re both wet, they’re both messed up permanently.
I really prefer staining to painting especially with our fancy Kapla blocks and other plank-type blocks, because the stain doesn’t interfere with the perfect balance of those blocks, while finally, FINALLY, allowing my kiddo to stack the rainbow of her dreams.
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Hi there! I'm Becky Striepe, a green crafter and vegan foodie living in Atlanta, Georgia with my husband and two cats. My mission is to make eco-friendly crafts and vegan food accessible to anyone who wants to give them a go.
Hello! My name is Bonnie Getchell and overall, I'm a craft nerd! I love making crafts, re-doing furniture, and anything along those lines. I especially love creating items that are from recycled materials like toilet paper rolls, bottles, etc.
I'm the lucky momma of two little blonde daddy-clones--we spend our days doing elaborate art projects, trashing the house, eating cheese cubes and oranges, and waiting for my partner to get home from his day job so we can pester him.
Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.
This post just solved my “how to paint the little wooden peg people and holders for my 18mo for Christmas” dilemma. Kudos!
Looks like a great solution. I’ve been trying to do this for ages without the risk of the colours running. Thanks for sharing (:
how great! would you consider these safe enough for a kid to put in their mouth or is there a kind of sealer that you know of that makes it safe. i am excited to make some blocks for my niece but dont want to accidentally give her something she shouldnt put her mouth on. thank you SO much
If you used non-toxic liquid watercolors, I would consider them okay for a kid to put in her mouth. However, the most natural choice for a child who still mouths is an undyed natural material, so plain wooden blocks are also a good choice.
So I did this for my son and his friend came over, put the blocks in her mouth, and all the color came off on her! Is this to be expected or am I doing something wrong? I am also using the colorations brand of watercolors.
I’m sure you’re not doing anything wrong. I don’t craft for mouthers anymore (yay!), but when you craft for mouthers, you need to add the extra step of sealing your toys if they’re painted, stained, or dyed. I’ve got a tutorial for homemade beeswax polish coming up soon, which is also natural, non-toxic, and will do the trick of sealing that wood away from spitty little toddlers.
I did actually seal them with beeswax polish! I can’t figure it out. It’s only the blue, which is sort of weird. I might just pick a different shade of blue and see if that helps.
Loved this tutorial though! So much easier than a lot of the other ones I’ve seen.
Goodness, I’m stumped, too, then! I could see it being color-specific, though–I dye a lot of play silks, and I certainly know that some colors set better than others. This is just a total guess, but I’m wondering if a) rinsing or soaking in vinegar would set that color better, or b) just rinsing or briefly soaking the block in water would at least bleed out any color that won’t set BEFORE it reaches a kid’s mouth.
I tried vinegar last night and it worked like a charm! Thank you for brainstorming with me.