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Tic Tac Toe Game

Tic Tac Toe is one of those childhood games that is fun for a child to share with friends or parents - and, occasionally, their sister or brother too.

This homemade version of the game has a matching trinket box to hold the game pieces when not in use. It's a sweet little craft project that won't take you very long, and is ideal for an older child to make as a homemade gift for a younger sibling, or for aunts and uncles to make for a special neice or nephew.

Copyright © 1999-2008 Susan Spatone All rights reserved.
Published with permission from CraftAtHome.com

Craft Supplies:

5 Inch Wood disk
8 Wood Finial pieces or something similar
4 Small Wood Knobs or something similar
1 Small Trinket Box (this box purchased at Wal-Mart)
Stencil Decor Paints (acrylic paints are fine),yellow, blue, pink, green
White Acrylic paint
220 Grit Sandpaper
Ruler
Pencil
Paint brush
Clear coat or varnish
Wood glue or tacky glue

Craft Project Instructions:

Sand all of your wood pieces and wipe dust with a damp cloth. Paint the entire wood surfaces with white paint. Allow paint to dry and apply a second coat of white paint. Allow to dry and sand gently to remove any roughness on the surfaces.

I used Stencil Decor Paints for this project, but you can use any acrylic paint. The Stencil Decor has a little bit of a transparent effect, but several coats will cover the surface completely. I wanted an aged worn look on the surface and applied only one coat of coloured paints. Referring to the photo, paint the top outside edge with green paint and allow to dry.

Using a ruler, measure the top centre surface area and divide into 3 equal parts. With a pencil, very lightly mark lines to create your blocks or grid on the top of the disk.

Referring again to the photo, colour the grid squares in alternate colours. Paint the trinket box with a green and pink stripe. This box has grooves cut in the wood, making it easy to paint. Paint the top centre of the trinket box blue.

Paint the four knobs, each a different colour (these knobs will be the legs for the game board). Paint four finial pieces (the ball section only) with blue paint and the other four with green paint.

The finish on this project is slightly distressed, giving it an aged and worn effect, but the soft colours, make it look very nice. To create this distressed look. Gently sand all the surfaces, scratching the paint slightly. Do this very gently as you don't want to remove the white paint below. You'll begin to see small white scratches through the paint and once you are satisfied with the appearance, wipe free of all dust using a damp cloth.

Glue four knobs in place for legs on the under side of the board. Allow the glue to dry completely.

Apply one or two coats of clear coat or varnish to protect the surfaces.

My 6 year old nephew loves tic-tac-toe and I made this game set for him. He was absolutely delighted with it!