Ever since Asia at Fun at home Kids made these hand dyed rainbow blocks I’ve wanted to dye some wood. Basically any and all wood I could get my hands on, but I resisted and settled on these wood beads. There are tons of ways to dye wood beads. I wanted one that my girls could help with so we did a really easy dying method using liquid watercolors. It was a really fun process with great results. I’m still wearing the rainbow necklace my girls made me. I love it.
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First, I set out a few baby jars filled with just a little bit of liquid watercolors in each. We like these
We dropped beads into each jar one by one. After the first round or two Gigi was putting as many as she could shove in there though. Ahh, the life of a toddler.
Then we screwed the lids back on, another toddler favorite.
Then the really fun part. We shook. We shook and we shook and we shook.
I was hoping to come up with some clever way to get the beads out of the jar but Gigi just fished them out with her fingers. If you are worried about your children’s fingers getting dyed, this project is not for you : ) Though I can assure, after a bath, they were completely clean. Watercolors do not dye hands permanently nor does food coloring. Clothes maybe, hands, no. (This is something I get asked all the time!)
Yeah, so she no longer looks like the pic above.
The beads came out so pretty and bright. I especially love the orange ones.
D loved them too! She moved them from container to container at least 100 times. I love this age. Give a 1 and half year old some containers and look out. They’ll be busy for an hour. Well, not quite an hour but you know what I mean. And if you happen to notice her amazing Stay Gold T-shirt in the pic below and need to make one immediately (I understand if you do) here is the tutorial.
So thanks Asia at Fun at Home with Kids for totally inspiring us. We love our dyed beads and are happily enjoying our necklaces!
this looks really fun! I am a preschool teacher and would love to do this with my class. How long did it take for the beads to dry? I know my kids will want to string them immediately and wear them as a necklace or bracelet.
It was really fuN! I think your preschoolers will love it. We’re in California, so we set them outside in the sun and the dried pretty quickly. Less than an hour. I bet you can blow dry them for a few minutes and they’d be ready to go and the kids would love it! Have fun and please let me know how it goes!
Where did you get these beads?
Hi Laura,
From Discount School Supply. I think there is a link in the post.