Blocks for Cora

During my pinterest journeys I came across this a post about dyeing your wood blocks.  The colors were vibrant and bright - different from your standard green, blue, red and yellow blocks that you find at the modern day Sears catalog store aka Amazon.com or other well known chain stores.  I simply fell in love with the blocks and thought they would make a unique first birthday present for Cora.  Since Cora will be turning one next week and is still in the early stages of teething -- absolutely everything goes in her mouth the dye for the blocks needed to be food safe and non toxic so I opted to use food coloring instead of water color paints.  

For this project I used the following items:

*unfinished blocks 

* food coloring

* vinegar

* bowls 

* cookie sheet

* cooling rack for baking

While Cora settled down for her afternoon nap I mixed up the dyes in the kitchen sink.  A very good suggestion from my mom for keeping the dye contained in one area.  

After mixing the dyes I invited Madeleine to come dye the blocks.  We had fun choosing which color to use for each block and beads.  I'll post about the beads soon.

We let the blocks and beads soak in the dye for over 40 minutes occasionaly rotating the blocks and beads in an attempt for uniform color.

Last but not least I removed the blocks from the dye and arranged them on my cookie sheet and cooling rack.  The blocks are being safely stored on the top shelf in the laundry closet for the next 24 - 48 hours.