This has to be my most creative handmade Christmas gift this year. Early in the year I saw a picture in a magazine with an outdoor tic tac toe set and immediately thought - "I could make that!"
I love the idea of it being "portable" and a game you could put out in your living room or your backyard - hey maybe you even take it to a tailgate.
Christmas morning my dad opened a box that looked like this:
Not quite what anyone would expect. Under the rope and pvc joints I had the X's and O's stacked.
After laying it out - everyone really got on board.
I think this was my most expensive handmade Christmas gift simply because of the X's and O's. If I could have cut them myself it would have been the cheapest but alas Michaels puts a pretty penny on their wood letters.
To make the base I used:
- 4 elbow joints
- 8 "T" joints
- 4 cross joints
- (1)16ft rope
- (2) 4ft rope
- (6) 1ft 4in rope
All joints were 1/2 inch and the rope was 3/8 in thick
The 16 ft rope will be your border - make sure you lace all outside joints on in the order they will lay. Measure the rope in 4ft increments and secure your elbow joints with gorilla glue. Clamp with a clothespin until dry. Once dry measure 1ft 4in from your elbow to the middle of your T joint and secure with gorilla glue and clothespin. Continue doing this until all T joints are glued and dried. Next you will add your two 4ft pieces to the T joint stringing on your cross joints first. Glue and let dry. Measure 1ft 4in for your cross joints and glue/let dry. Add your smallest rope pieces to your cross/remaining t joint.
wallah!
I used craft paint and painters tape to get the stripes on the letters. This was probably the most time consuming part as the paint needed at least two coats to darken up. Once dried I removed the painters tape and sprayed them down good with a polyurethane clear finish in glossy.
I think I might be making one of these for my backyard also :)
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