Wooden Blocks Makeover

Somewhere along the line I was given this block set on a wagon. At the time they were already in rough-ish shape so now that I am finally getting around to redoing them, they are in serious need of some help.

(Whole set not shown)

I started by peeling as much of the paper off as possible, my 3 year old had fun helping with this part :)

Then I submerged a few blocks at a time in hot water. This softened the remaining paper and allowed me to scrape off the wet paper and glue really easily. It took some time but they each came clean.

I found a few rough spots in the wood so I sanded those areas. 

Here they all are ready to be stained!

To prepare the wagon, I removed the rope handle and taped the wheels. 

I chose to stain the wood pieces in this project to try and hide the imperfections in the wood. 

Once it had dried I painted the bottom of the wagon with acrylic TURQUOISE (shocker) paint. 

I also painted the underside with grey acrylic paint. Once it had all dried I gave the whole thing 2 coats of clear spray paint. 

For the blocks, I made a template and cut squares from scrapbook paper. 

I wanted the wood to be visible so I made the squares a bit smaller than the sides of the blocks.

I attached my patterned squares to the blocks with a glue stick, making sure every edge is covered so you won't get air bubbles later. 

Here are my blocks all covered! Each side then gets two coats of matte Hodgepodge, I just used a small paint brush to do this. 

Finally I attached a ribbon to pull the wagon, secured with a knot and some hot glue. I threaded a wooden bead onto the ribbon to make a bit of a handle. I secured with a dot of hot glue and then sewed a few stitches across the seam.

Now they are modern, colourful and they even match the new nursery ;)