Boredom Buster- Layout game and drawing board in one- Tutorial

Did you stop going to restaurants since you have your child? Children get bored and want to get up from the table before the food even arrives. Since Tina is here, we try to choose restaurants that have a playground or such. She is actually very good at sitting down most days and can even sit for about 20 to 30 minutes. Remember the Tic Tac Toe game on the go? Also a cool project to take with. The following project is meant to keep the child busy for a little longer.

You can certainly make it bigger to play at home. I like this project because it is not only a boredom buster, but it helps the child to learn colors and shapes and encourages them to draw.

You will need

• metal CD box – it is best if you find something like that, because the magnets also stick on it
• piece of magnetic metal (containing iron) to fit in your box
• piece of chalkboard cloth
• piece of batting
• piece of cotton fabric or even better, laminated fabric (if you are using plain cotton fabric, pod podge it with fabric mod podge
• some gross grain ribbon or bias tape
• some colorful foam – I used a pre- cut package. Here you can also use felt, card stock etc. There are also printable magnetic sheets which you could print and cut
• self adhering magnetic foil or small magnets
• permanent marker to draw the faces
• other glitter glues etc that you have on hand
• chalk - I would use a dust free chalk if you can get it

Make sure that the corners of your metal plate are filed round so that they do not pierce through the fabric measure the size you need to fit in your box. Make a sandwich as follows: Cotton fabric face down, metal plate, batting and the chalk cloth face up. Use some glue to glue the metal plate in place. Sew all the edges with a straight stitch.

Attach the ribbon or bias tape. I choose ribbon, because it was easier to sew it on and was laying flatter on the corners than bias tape would. Measure the length of the ribbon for the given side and double the length. Singe the edges, fold the ribbon in half and sew together one side. Slip onto your project and sew on. Repeat for all the edges. Be very careful not to sew through the metal. Well – the machine won't sew through the metal. The needle will break and if you are not careful, you can damage your machine!

Make the magnetic shapes. I used a pre-cut package of foam shapes. This you can make with your children. Make some faces etc and attach a magnet on each piece. I f you do not find pre cut foam shapes or similar, let your creativity run wild and use felt, card stock etc. You can cut everything by hand or use your silhouette or similar. You can also print your shapes and faces directly on a magnetic foil and then cut them out.

Another thing that you could make for this project with your child is a little book with examples of the layouts one could make with the shapes. This is not only a fun project to tackle, but later by following the layouts, you child is learning some more.

Have fun!

This project made the Top Ten at the CSI Project Weekly Challenge



I am showing this project at