Tic~Tac~Toe (Apparently, Without The Kiddo!)

The other day, I saw a tic-tac-toe project at the craft store.  It came across as intriguing (as it was only a few days before, that my daughter decided to raid my desk drawer of cardstock and play several rounds of the game herself (with one of her dolls). I viewed it as a neat project the kiddo and I could do together, so I bought a few things, and planned to put it all together this weekend.

But the thing is, my 5-year old is too girlie.  This little thing does not run around our home like a normal kid her age.  She pirouettes while doing it.  For the past month, she hasn't been speaking to us in her regular teeny voice.  She's been singing every word-- in vibrato.  Everything has to be pink-- right down to the color of her toothpaste.  (And she finds it comical that although Mommy finds it impossible to walk in anything higher than 1", she can parade around in Cinderella play heels like she was born in them.  She particularly likes tapping in them as well (in the bathroom with the heatlamp on, which she calls her "spotlight"), which must sound absolutely lovely to the neighbors below.)

So back to this project.  The moment I mentioned the word "glue", she gave me a look of "um... uh...  I don't do glue".  And because of that, I was given another project to do by myself.  (Minus the "o" part of the game-- she did that herself to make it seem like she was involved.)

To do this project, you will need the following:

• Delta Ceramcoat Gloss Interior Varnish
• Paint or stain of your choice  (I had some wood stain, that I added a couple drops of black acrylic paint to, to give off that hard-to-find espresso finish.)
• Glass (gawd!  What are those things called?  They're the ones that they sell in the bag, that you make magnets out of...  can't think of it right now.  Pebbles?)
• 1" paper punch  (I got the Martha Stewart one, because I didn't want to mess with a cheaper one, and pay for it, by having the paper get all caught up in it.)
• Vinyl tic-tac-toe stickers  (sold at the craft store with a website called http://www.vinylwords.com/)
• Decoupage glue (again, Martha Stewart)-- to glue the paper to the glass drop things.
• 1 4x4 piece of sheet metal
• 1 wood square
• 1 box (optional) for storage
• Scrapbook paper (to cover the sheet metal and line the box with)  (Make sure that the background of the game and pieces are not to loud to distract the x's and o's.)
• Sandpaper-- fine grade
• (There should also be some round magnets pictured, to superglue to the back of the 'x's and 'o's, but I can't find them at the moment.  I usually keep them in a desk drawer, but I found a couple of old cassettes from my high school days, that I didn't want getting erased by them with.  So right now, I can't remember where they are-- just like my driver's license that I haven't seen since last Saturday!)

First what you want to do, is make sure all the sides of the wood are free of little splinters that will dry up hard, leaving a poor finish.  So before you start, make sure they are sanded with some fine-grade sandpaper.

Paint or stain the wood pieces, in the style that you want.  (To get fancy, you can paint it one color, then paint over it with another.  And then with the sandpaper, run it across the edges and whatnot to give it a 'vintage' or 'shabby' look.) 

This is my workspace.  The dining room table with an oversized cutting board that was too big for my kitchen.

When the painting is finished, get a spongebrush (that I forgot to mention), and use it to glide the varnish across the surfaces, making sure there are no bubbles; about 3-4 coats.  (While waiting for the wood to dry, cut and measure the scrapbook paper, gluing it onto the piece of sheet metal.  And then punch out 8 pieces of scrapbook paper out (4 each of two different patterns), adding the x's and o's, and gluing them to the pieces of glass.  When dry, superglue the magnets onto the back.) 

When all is dry, your child might get upset at you, wondering why you didn't let them do all the painting.  (Like mine just did a few minutes ago, while I was typing this up.)  Ignore it, and tell them that you are trying to pay bills online, so they can see that you can't be bothered right now.  (It wasn't going to happen anyways, being that there is carpet underneath this table!)

Anyways...

When it does get dry, glue the sheet metal onto the wood, and measure and cut (preferably using an exacto knife and a ruler) the scrapbook pieces to the interior of the wood box (if you're making that, too).

This project took about a couple hours to do (because of the drying time involved).  But if you have ones that are a little bit older, it might be a neat project to do to give away as a gift, or a display piece.

With that said, goodnight!