Food colouring = Wood stain

Some of the wood stain colours that you find on the shelf these days are boring and old fashioned. Any easy way to make your own colourful wood stain is to use food colouring. In this article you will find out how easy it is to stain wood in any colour you want - easy and affordably. Grab some PAR pine blocks to practice on and start mixing up rainbow shades of wood stains.

 

Why bother to buy wood stain when you can make up your own colourful wood stains using food colouring and some rubbing alcohol.

YOU WILL NEED:

Scrap blocks of wood
Paintbrushes
Plastic cups for mixing
Food colouring
Rubbing alcohol (buy at a pharmacy)
Newspaper to work on
Disposable gloves

HERE'S HOW:

The Recipe
For every 1 tablespoon of alcohol, you add10 drops of food colouring. For these small blocks you will only needed 1 tablespoon of alcohol.

Using the plastic cups, add 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 10 drops of food colouring. The fun is that you can mix up the different food colourings to make new colours. While 10 drops are adequate for a light stain, experiment with more drops for a darker stain - there are no rules, so go ahead and have some fun! Do bear in mind that the more layers you apply the darker the colour turns out.

Using rubbing alcohol means that it evaporates quickly, leaving behind the stain colour. You can apply a second coat in about 10 minutes.

Build up layers of stain until you are happy with the finished result. Let each layer dry before applying another layer or you may end up with darker colours than you originally wanted. You should also be aware that the end grain of the wood will soak up the stain mixture quite quickly, and that means applying more stain to these areas.

These coloured blocks are non-toxic and one hundred percent safe for children, so make up block to teach you children about colour association, or make different shapes. There are some many ways to use this easy wood stain.