Seems like most everyone has some of these lying around. And if not, they’re pretty cheap to lay your hands on some. But they’re so very…well, I dunno, primary, y’know?

But thanks to the lovely raised letters/numbers & borders, they take just moments to update!

All you need is a flat (or stipple) foam brush and some paint (I have gobs of little pots of Folk Art, CraftSmart, and Apple Barrel acrylic paints in my craft arsenal, and I use them all the time!).

I used a three-inch flat foam brush (I think they cost about fifty cents), added a little paint to it, then dabbed my block onto it so the paint would cover the raised portions (don’t press hard or it will go into the relief areas too).

And it’s that simple: from primary to secondary to tertiary to any shade you choose! An easy, cheap, fast update for those old blocks!

Then if you really want to kick it up a notch, you can paint the four non-raised sides of the block, too, with chalkboard paint…

…or a complimentary color (if you still want the drawings to show through, like with the aqua elephant below, either use an almost-dry brush coat or water your paint down a bit).

Wheeee! With what colors will you update your blocks?!

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You might also like to pull out the paints for these…