Noughts and Crosses

Or Tic-Tac-Toe - create a game that can be used in a restaurant to entertain your little ones or send to a child (small or big) in a birthday card

I've been wanting to make a portable noughts and crosses game for a while. My children and I often play this if we are waiting somewhere - for example waiting in a restaurant but we don't always have enough spare paper with us (plus think of the trees). This one is small enough to keep in my handbag for any such occasion. I even made an envelope for it using We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board to keep all the pieces together.  (Click here to see how an envelope is made).  However an envelope that would fit a 5" square card would work just as well.

You could make and post it like a little gift within a birthday card.

My favourite is the little stamped pieces but if you scroll down to the end of the instructions you can see my son and I have been playing it with die cut pieces (for those who don't like stamping) or buttons (great for anyone with dexterity issues).

Follow the below link to find out how this little game was made



To make my stamped one, You will need: (I will talk through how to adjust the card size required if you wish to make bigger playing pieces in the instructions below)

• White card
• Blue card 12 cm by 12 cm
• Blue card cut into 9 squares - 3 cm by 3 cm each
• Black card 10 cm by 10 cm
• Cat and dog stamp from 'Family and Friends' Stampin' Up! stamp set
• Brown and grey ink pads
• Colouring pencils (I used a light grey, dark grey, pink, light brown and a dark brown)
• 1 1/8 inch circle punch (I used stampin' Up! scalloped punch)
• Double sided tape

1. Stamp 6 cats and 6 dogs onto white card - ensure they are spaced enough apart so you can punch them out later with the 1 1/8" circle punch. Colour in the little pictures
   


2. Punch out the pictures - you now have 6 playing pieces for each side (You will only ever need 5 pieces for each side but it's best to have a spare)
   


3. Using double sided tape, stick the black square centrally onto the 12 cm by 12 cm blue card


4. Stick one of the 3 cm square blue card pieces to the top left corner of the black square, ensuring it lines up with the edges of the black square and that no black can be seen on the outside edge


5. Repeat with another blue square but to the top right hand corner of the black square


6. Lay a ruler under these two squares and stick another blue square in the middle of the other two so that there is a half centimetre gap between them (as seen in the below photo)
   


7. Stick the remaining blue squares onto the black card in a similar fashion so you create the following board:
   

Your game is now ready to play. If you do not like stamping and would prefer to die cut or punch some playing pieces then you can - see my bucket and sandcastle set. You could also just use buttons - I have a large basket of random buttons so picked 6 pink and 6 blue to make up a set.

If you have a particular stamp or die that makes your playing pieces bigger then 3 cm in diameter this is how you can adjust your game board:

(a) Cut your playing pieces first and measure their biggest width. (eg 5cm)

(b) Your 9 squares each need to be the size calculated in point a. (eg 5cm square)

(c) The black piece of card will then be the size of your square (in point b) times 3 plus 1cm. (eg 5 x 3 + 1 = 16 cm square)

(d) The base piece of card that you glue the black card to will then be the size of the black piece of card plus 2 cm. (eg 16 + 2 = 18cm square)

Have fun playing or gifting. Happy crafting X