When winter weather rolls around, board games are a classic cabin fever reliever.  Sharon from Keen Inspirations made a Christmas-themed game board of her own featuring two different classic games:  checkers on one side and tic tac toe on the other!  It will keep kids and adults alike occupied for hours, all for a very nominal cost.  The game pieces are made out of plastic coin party favors with cute clip art attached.  If you printed out clip art to represent chess pieces and glued them to additional coins, you could give this board a third purpose as well!  [how to make a Christmas game board]

Project estimate:

• Posterboard, on hand or $1
• Duct tape, on hand or $1 and up
• Plastic coins, $1 and up
• Clip art, free
• Spray paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Mod Podge, on hand

Total: $1 and up

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Inspired by a project she saw in a booklet from Lowe’s, Kristi (aka Cupcake Mama) from Cupcake Daze came up with her own version of a slate tile tic-tac-toe board.  She used a slate floor tile as the base, with felt stick-on pads underneath to avoid scratching your table top.  The X and O markers are made by simply painting the letters onto stones, which her daughter helped to do.  Her blog is full of other fun, kid-oriented ideas as well, so be sure to drop by and look around!  [how to make a slate tile tic-tac-toe board]

While you probably won’t be able to find a slate tile at the dollar store, most home improvement stores should have them for around $2 each.  Her stones are river rocks from the dollar store, but you could easily collect your own off the ground; just make sure you wash and dry them well so that the paint will stick.

Project estimate:

• Slate tile, $2
• 10 stones, free or $1
• Stick-on felt pads, $1
• White paint, on hand or $1
• Polyurethane, on hand or $5 and up

Total:  $3 and up

You could adapt this idea for other classic board games as well.  For example, painting the slate with a checkered grid makes it perfect for both checkers and chess.  Paint stones red and black to make game pieces for checkers; make them stackable by adding stick-on Velcro tabs to the top and bottom of each stone.  For chess pieces, paint the names of the pieces on the stones.  You could also use the initial of each piece name (K for king, Q for queen, and so on) or, if you are artistic, paint images on the stones representing the different chess pieces.

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Tic-Tac-Toe to Go: $2

Nikki at Salty Pineapple made this to-go version of tic-tac-toe. You can use plastic figurines found at the dollar store (Cowboys vs. Indians? Army men vs. Dinosaurs?) and take this game with you for instant fun on the go. Click here for The Salty Pineapple’s Tutorial.

Counting Game: $1

Reader Ann at Two Red Heads and a Boy-le made this cool counting game out of a dollar store shadow box. So cool! Get the details here.

Tic-Tac-Toe: $1

The same shadow box becomes a Tic-Tac-Toe game, by Katrina at Sevin Family.

Rubber Band Gun: $.25-ish

Nikki at Salty Pineapple made these fun rubber band guns for a game at her son’s birthday party. Details here.

Airplane Runway: $1 or less

Noelle from Reynolds R Us made this cute little play runway for her son (all with just her glue gun! no sewing!). I think it would be fun to make one out of a dollar store placemat and scrap fabric. Get the info here.

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