DIY Garden Tic Tac Toe Game
My boys LOVE playing Tic Tac Toe! Whenever my 8 year old gets a scrap of paper, it’s instantly filled with tic tac toe grids and he’s asking all of us if we want to play. On our road trip this past summer we came across a garden tic tac toe game at the Montana Zoo and I absolutely loved the idea and knew it was one DIY project that I had to make! It wasn’t too hard to make, either, but I didn’t have any motivation to work on the project once I bought the supplies until the weather finally started cooling down here in Phoenix so we could set up our garden tic tac toe game outdoors and try it out.
This post is sponsored by Quaker. All opinions are my own.聽
DIY Garden Tic Tac Toe Game
- (9) square pavers, mine are about 6″
- Spray paint, optional
- Weather protectant spray paint
- 10 flat, smooth river rocks, about聽4-6″
- Couple small tubes of paint
Directions:
I got my pavers from my local home improvement聽store, but they didn’t have any river rocks. For the river rocks, I went to a rock sales place and they weighed my vehicle, sent me down to pick out my rocks, and then my car was reweighed to figure out the bulk weight for pricing. The owner walked out to our van, rather than having us come in, chuckling and said it was under $1 and we could just have the rocks! Next time, I would have picked up my pavers at the same type of place as they were much higher priced at the home improvement store.
I started by spray painting the tops of my pavers, painting 5 in my “pop” color and 4 in a dark brown. My pavers started red and you can leave them as they come if you prefer. This step is totally optional. After the color spray paint dried, I also used a sealant spray paint to help coat and protect them from having the paint chip off as easily.
Next, I also spray painted just the tops of the river rocks. I left the back sides uncolored so they could be flipped and blend in naturally, if I ever wanted or needed them to. I really love them with the color just on the top, it makes them really pop! I went with two different colors, painting each of the 5 rocks one of the colors. You can skip this step as well, but the color here really will make a big difference. I just reused a bunch of paint cans I already had on hand, so this part was all still super inexpensive! If you don’t have any leftover cans, see if you can borrow paint from a friend. You really don’t need very much paint.
Finally, the fun part! I had all the little tubes of paint, you know like 4聽for $1 tubes, in all the colors I would need – red, black, grey, and yellow. I pulled the paint out to start painting one night, only to realize I totally forgot the paint brushes! No big deal, my friend said “let’s fingerpaint!” and we got to work. It was actually really fun finger painting and we used a pencil tip and eraser when we needed thinner lines and circles. I had made printables for my rocks first, but I didn’t like the way they looked modge podged onto the rocks, so we just used the images as a guide and painted our own! Here’s the bugs I used:
After that, it was just letting paint dry again and the pulling all the elements together. I set up my pavers alternating colors to form a tic tac toe grid. My boys the helped me carry out my river rocks and it was time to play!
My boys were absolutely thrilled with their Garden tic tac toe game and I know it’s something that will get use for years to come. The best part is it looks awesome in our yard. Unlike many of their tacky toys that fill our patio it actually adds to our backyard space!
Of course, they’ve already started coming up with their own twists and other ways to play! My 4 year old was all about making lines, patterns and shapes with the rocks.
Quaker Make the Play Contest
While my boys can’t get enough of tic tac toe, Quaker wants to know what unique ways your family plays and gets outdoors together!聽By sharing how your family plays, you will be entered for a chance to win a day of play with Indianapolis Colts Quarterback Andrew Luck! It’s all about reminding families that getting active together and choosing good foods聽is important! Studies have even shown that kids that are active and have good nutrition do better at academics and have improved concentration in class!
Head on over to QuakerMakethePlay.com to enter today! The contest runs through 12/1/2014.
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-Tanya
http://tanyaanurag.blogspot.com/
I love this! Pinned for next summer, thanks for sharing!
How fun is this! What a neat idea, the kids would enjoy this.
Cute idea! Pinned it. Found your blog on the Skip the Housework link party and started following on Google +.
Erin
http://theeveryday-mom.blogspot.com/
Love this project daughter would love making and playing. Thanks
G’day! How cute and thanks for sharing at our #SayGdayParty
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Cheers! Joanne @ What’s On The List Pinned
This is so innovative! How creative of you to show a new way to play tic-tac-toe!
awesome diy and fun for the kids to make and play! Love the bees and lady bugs 馃檪 Hope you will stop by sometime and party with us at Snickerdoodle Sunday!
Oh my gosh what a cute idea! So creative! I’m going to do this next spring.
What a cute tic tac toe board! Our family likes to do all sorts of outdoor activities together.
Wow, this turned out so neat! Another reason to get outside with the family!
This is so adorable!
So cute!!! The rocks turned out adorable! My girls would love to do this!
I love this, and pinned it. Such a cool way to add fun to the garden (and we’d totally play too).
Things like this make me wish I had a backyard garden. This was a great idea and I’m sure it well get tons of use.
This is beyond adorable! I love this idea, so fun and cute. My girls saw this and wanted to find out more about it! Such a good idea!
This is such a cute idea. So simple to make and looks so good. My kids would have loved this when they were little.
This is so neat! I think I need to make it for my patio area soon.
This is awesome. I totally want to do this! I bet this would be great for summer time outdoors. I wonder if the pavers will be cheaper out of season?… Thank you for this I am pinning now!
What a way to jazz up an old favorite. Love the garden idea!
Super cute but I’d substitute the Bees for Butterflies of course! 馃檪
Great idea, thanks for sharing!
Oh my gosh, this is too cute! I would love to make this next spring!
That is so adorable! My son is just lear
That is so cute! My boys would love to help make this and play with it.
Those butterflies and bees are seriously so cute! This is such a fun and simple idea, I love it.
I LOVE this! We’re in Phoenix too, and with the cooling weather (finally!) the kids have been spending a lot more time outdoors. This would be so much fun for all of us! Pinned! 馃檪
Oh gosh Janel, this is soooo cute. Our garden is done for the season but I am totally going to make this next year. Pinned!
What a great idea. Great way to take the activity outside!
That is brilliant! I wish we had an outdoor yard to try this!
What a neat and fun idea. The entire family can have fun making and playing with this.
Oh my gosh this is adorable! Both fun to make and fun to play. 馃檪
My twins LOVE to play tic tac toe and they also turn every scrap of paper into a tic tac toe board. This would be a really fun project! I may even make a coaster version that they can plan with on cold and rainy days!
That would be really cute! Good thinking!
That is the cutest idea ever. My kids would get the biggest kick out of that.
This is such an awesome way to play tic tac toe, and dare i say, even good for a very very heavy gift? lol
Great game for the outdoors, a much cooler way to play I say. I love this!
This is such a fun and creative idea, and I think my son would really enjoy making this with me.
I love this idea! I have seen other games like chess but my kids love Tic Tac Toe. I am going to have to try making this for our garden and one for my sister. Thanks for sharing the idea!