Sadler House

Sadler House

Rockland, Maine

Tic Tac Toe Keepsake

November 2, 2015 | 2 Comments

In order to give guests the optimal experience at your vacation rental, it’s important to pay attention to those little extras. Years ago, before we had our own place, we stayed at a vacation rental in the area of Luray, Virginia. When we arrived, the owner had left us a basket of goodies, including a pound cake she had baked, herself. Between that and the generous stack of white towels, we were immediately predisposed to enjoy our stay. We felt very welcome.Tic Tac Toe Keepsake - DIY

Now that we are sharing Sadler House with guests, we try to carry on our own gift basket tradition. We aren’t living next door, so we can’t bake each guest a fresh pound cake. Instead, I’ve tried to come up with fun little crafts that our guests will find both charming and useful. We hope that these little touches and a welcome card will make show our guests how thankful we are to be hosting them.

Recently, I was scrolling through Pinterest and I came to a stop at this craft by Megan at the blog Balancing Home. The product was an adorable little tic tac toe set that was made from rocks and carried in a teeny burlap bag.

While I was reading the post, I started pondering how I might incorporate this craft into my gift baskets. I resolved to find some sort of rocks and burlap bags on my next trip to the craft store and give it a go.

Well, we all know you rarely find exactly what you’re looking for, right? Instead of the natural burlap bags, I happened upon a stack of sea foam green ones on clearance in the cake decorating aisle, of all places. I got a bunch of them for 50 cents each. The color reminded me a bit of a Tiffany box, and I hatched a plan to make my tic tac toe kit a little fancier. Here’s what I did, and I hope you love the results as much as I do!

Supplies:
Tic Tac Toe Supplies

A burlap bag – mine is 6″ x 7″

A squeezable tube of fabric paint

E6000 glue

10 Flat glass decorator beads (in the floral aisle) – only 6 are pictured here

3/4 inch medium or light-duty self-adhesive felt pads

5/8 inch hole punch

Printer and cardstock

This is definitely a case where your project quickly becomes very inexpensive if you make a few of them. The glue, beads, paint, and felt pads all come in packs that will yield many of these kits, so they’re perfect for gift basket or holiday presents. I bought large packages of everything and still only spent about $14. That will make several of these kits and then provide materials for other crafts many times over. For example, the felt pads in my value pack will also work on my coasters.

Tic Tac Toe Bag
Tic Tac Toe Keepsake

Using a straight edge (I used the tag that came on the bag) measure out a “board” for the front of your bag and apply the pain smoothly. Make sure you leave room near the neck of the bag so that the board won’t crumple when you pull the strings tight.

Tic Tac Toe Game Pieces

Supplies for Tic Tac Toe Keepsake
  • Print my X and O sheet (scroll down for the link) on a heavy paper or cardstock. Click through to the jpg, save it to your computer, and then open it and print it as an 8×10.
  • Punch out the letters with your 5/8 inch hole punch. Make sure you have five of each (the photo only shows three of each – sorry!)
  • Sparingly apply glue to the bottom of a glass bead, using a toothpick to smear the glue around. Stick an X or O to the bottom of the bead face up so that it is magnified by the bead. Set aside to dry for one hour.

When the pieces are dry, stick a felt pad to the bottom of eFelt pads for Tic Tac Toeach piece.

Voila! You are done! You have a portable Tic Tac Toe set to tote in the car or to the beach or a restaurant, to keep the kids busy while you wait.

I’m hoping my summer guests will find this cute little craft as charming as I did.

X and O printable here!

2 people are talking about “Tic Tac Toe Keepsake

  1. I am considering making this project with my girls group, however I need to be clear on something. If I read correctly, it says place glue on bottom of glass bead and then adhere to the paper face up, yet put the felt on the other end. It never mentions removing the paper, so I am trying to figure out if the paper is to be removed to expose the X and O, or does the glue suck the paper through henceforth eliminating the paper itself just exposing the design on it? Please advise.

    • Hi! I’m happy to clarify that for you. The paper is never removed. You glue it face up to the bottom of the bead so that it is magnified through the bead (the glue dries clear). The felt pads then have a peel-off adhesive on them, so you then stick those to the underside of the x/o glass bead so that the felt faces out and the adhesive side is attaching to the bottom of the little paper you just glued onto the bead. The idea is that when you set the finished x/o piece down, it has a felt cushion underneath that keeps the bead from sliding around and protects the paper underneath from peeling off. I hope that helps!

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