Homemade Tic Tac Toe

When you have a moment, use a little time to create your own game of Tic Tac Toe, which you and your family can all join in.

If you don't have rocks to paint, check out the other options below and, if you don't have material to make a bag, I've included a game board you can print out on card or paper and use.

I'm going to show you how to make the bag and game in this project, but you can always alter to suit your needs and resources.

You will need:

• Scissors
• Scrap material 
• Make sure nine pieces can fit on it comfortably in a square of 3 pieces by 3 pieces 
• Mine was 60cm by 28cm folded in half or
• You can have two pieces 30cm by 28cm
• Ten rocks
• Two designs in sets of five
• A Sharpie, paint pen, biro or something to draw on your bag with
• Sewing machine so someone to help you sew
• Ribbon, cord or string (three times the width of your bag)
• Safety pin / paper clip / bobby pin / crafter's large eye needle
• Pencil
• A ruler

Part One:

1. Collect ten stones as near to the same size and shape as possible.

2. Paint five in one design and five in another. I've used:

• Bees
• Ladybirds

When following the tutorials for bees and ladybirds, there is no need to write a sharing statement on the reverse of your rocks. You can just paint them in black or leave them bare.

Because the rocks are not going outside for sharing in nature, you can also add glitter, googly eyes, jewels etc to make them as amazing as you'd like

* * *

Part 2

1. Cut your material to the required size (60 x 28) or two pieces (30 x 28) to the required sizes

2. You're going to sew the bag inside out so:

• Make sure your favourite side is on the inside 
• Sew down both the long sides (right and left sides), leaving a 3cm gap unstitched on the top edge of one of the sides.
• Leave the top open
• If you have two seperate pieces of material, don't forget to sew along the bottom too!

I've used black thread so, when you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see

3. Neaten up the gap at the top by stitching around it:

4. Prepare to sew the top seam by folding it over once (left / top image) about 1cm, folding it again (right / bottom image) to the 3cm and pin.

5. You are now going to sew your 2cm seam.
Sew this all the way around along the bottom edge of your seam

6. Turn your little bag inside out, or right way around so all the stitching is on the inside.
Trim off any straggling pieces of thread

7. Cut  your cord or ribbon so that it is three times wider than your bag.

Easy way to do this:

• Fold the ribbon in half then
• Lay it on your bag and 
• Adjust it until the ribbon is half the width of the bag again
• Then cut

8. Using a pin / needle, thread your ribbon through the top seam, out the other side then tie a knot in it

9. Pull the cord and feed the knot into the seam (optional)

10.  Flatten out your bag, divide it into nine equal squares and draw your lines.

How I did mine:

• Measured the width and divided that into three, made my marks
• Measured the length and divided that into three and made my marks
• Then, with my Sharpie and ruler, I drew my squares

Now that your rocks are ready and dry, you can add them to your bag. You can take this anywhere with you and have fun to keep them all together, nice and tidy in one place.

Rules:

• Tic Tac Toe is a two player game
• Each player has five markers each
• Players take turns in placing one marker in a square until they reach three in a row
• The object is to achieve three markers in a row whilst preventing your opponent from achieving three markers in a row
• Valid winning rows can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal 
• You can also print out the game board here, which includes the basic rules of the game

Options:

You can use googly eyes instead of painting eyes on as I have.

If you don't have rocks, you can use

• Milk bottle tops
• Two sets of five
• 5 red top and 5 blue top and any combinations you wish
• If you only have one colour, put some stickers on them but make sure you have two sets of five of each design
• If you don't have stickers, draw an X on five and an O on the other five

If you don't have a bag or need a template, open this link for a printable 'board' or you can use it as a template. This link will open in a new window.

Alternatives:

Number Scrabble

• Number Scrabble: A mathematical game. Same grid on bag, nine numbered pieces with 1 - 9 painted on.
• Players take turns to select numbers from 1 to 9 without repeating any numbers previously used, and the first player to amass a personal total of exactly 15 wins the game

If you have any other ideas, leave them in the comments box below so others can read and be inspired

Here are some links to help with other projects.

• Preparing and Painting Rocks
• Cool Places to Hide Your Rocks
• Not-So-Cool Places to Hide Your Rocks
• Basic Do's and Do Not's
• What to write on the back of your rock

Check out the FAQ and, if it's not there, ask on the Facebook group, we'll all be happy to help!

For a full list of tutorials, please click here

Thank you to @yvilcosplays and @suttoncoldfieldsmilestones, both on Instagram, for their valuable help and advice with this project