Little Mr. Fox is celebrating his second birthday here on Saturday and I am using it as an excuse to make some games for the grandshoots to play when they visit.
I'm always hoping to use things up and spend no money, so I started with a little 'research' on the web, and decided the first game would be a "Feed the Monster" bean-bag game.
I had some help from Little Man putting the primer on a scrap piece of particle board from the garage, and then used a giant Sharpie to draw the outline of the monster Miss Helping Hands wanted me to use (which she found at Candyland Studio).
The grandshoots helped color the monster using some of the craft paint which has been lingering in my studio for years.
This afternoon, I drilled holes at the corners of the monster's mouth for inserting the jig saw blade and then used the saw to cut out the entire mouth.
A very quick sanding of the cut edges, followed by coloring with the giant Sharpie, came next.
Fabric glue and cheapo craft felt came into play next.
Teeth were cut and attached like this...
...and a large rectangle of black felt was glued to the back of the board just above the mouth.
Because I wanted to be able to set up this game anywhere (instead of having to prop it against a fence or wall) but it also needed to be flat for storage, I used a 3" hinge to attach another piece of scrap wood to the top of the back to support it sandwich-sign style.
It was sturdy enough that it didn't budge when we tossed bean-bags at it, but I was still concerned it might fall on a small person who leaned on it while retrieving bean-bags, so I was happy to find the locking hinges, which hadn't worked for the fold-down art desk I built, were the perfect solution.
We spent no money and we used up some stuff.
The monster is now ready to be fed.
Alas, we have no dried beans in the house with which to fill the bean-bags.
When life gives you lemons...