A fresh look for old wooden blocks: Part 1

Why hello! Today's blog will be part 1 of 2 with the second part coming out next Wednesday. I have started a project with some wooden blocks and will be continuing to work on it throughout the week/weekend so next week you will be able to see the finished project! So to start this project I grabbed some old wooden blocks that used to have rubber stamps on the back. My mom was going to throw them away, but luckily she held onto them!

As you can see, these blocks used to hold Christmas rubber stamps, but my mom has since started using acrylic blocks for her stamps and no longer needed the wooden ones. The black image is simply a sticker so I peeled it off carefully. There was some residual adhesive still left on each side on the block so I pulled out a magical potion that I knew could save the day: Goo Gone (not a sponsor of course). If you've never heard of or used Goo Gone, its this weird, oily stuff that somehow manages to get residual glue, tape and stickers off of whatever you'd like. Here's my trusty bottle.

See! It's fun stuff! So I poured a generous amount of Goo Gone on the blocks, let it sit for a few minutes and then scrubbed at the adhesive with a sponge and warm soupy water. With a little elbow grease the glue was gone! I then let the blocks dry overnight. The next night I sanded them with fine grit sandpaper to smooth them down and then painted them. Just your basic acrylic craft paint will do! The blue block below has about 2 coats of paint. You could still slightly see the wood grain through the paint, but I like that look. If you want heavier, more even coverage, go for 3 coats and let the blocks dry completely between coats. I was painting on one of my boyfriend's shirts that had been ruined by coffee because why not right?

Okay thats all you are going to get this week! What am I going to turn these painted blocks into? Check back next week to see the finished product!

​ - Rebecca