Toolbox
- pockets from old jeans
- scissors
- gloss outdoor acrylic paint
- paint brush
- small dry beans or split green peas
- straight pins
- sewing machine and thread
- terra cotta saucers
I’ve got my new Fourth of July felt pennants to decorate with next weekend, so the next thing to focus on is entertainment. I wanted a new game for the kids at my party to play, and since their parents are all fans of the popular game cornhole,
Gather the supplies
To make the bean bags, you’ll need the pockets from some old jeans. If you’ve used your old jeans to make some of our past denim projects (like our water bottle holder or quilt), then you should have plenty of pockets left over, and this is the perfect way to use them up.
You’re also going to need some ordinary supplies like scissors, some gloss acrylic paint (Plaid’s Apple Barrel Gloss is my favorite by far), a paint brush, straight pins, and a sewing machine and thread.
For the bean bag filling, go to the dry beans section of your grocery store and pick out whatever you can find that’s as small and cheap as possible. For me, the smallest and cheapest available was split green peas,
Finally, you’ll need from three to five terra cotta saucers
Sew the bean bags
Now get ready to make the easiest bean bags ever. Grab your old jeans and trim around the back pockets with a pair of scissors, right along the pocket’s edges. For the top of the pocket, just cut straight across the top. You’ll end up with pouch that’s already sewn shut for you on three sides.
If you want to decorate your pockets, take a few minutes now to paint them using the Apple Barrel gloss paint. Since I was making this game for the Fourth of July, I painted a star on each pocket.
Now fill the pockets about 2/3 full of the dry beans. Don’t make them too full, or else you won’t be able to sew them shut.
Use two straight pins to hold the top closed, then sew it shut with one or two rows of stitches on the sewing machine.
That’s it. Your bean bags are done! If you don’t have a sewing machine, you could sew the pockets shut by hand. (Or you might even get away with using hot glue, but I don’t think they would last very long!)
Paint the saucers
You can paint the saucers in any color or design you like, to match the occasion. I painted mine in a simple red, white, and blue design. I painted scores on each saucer, with the lowest score for the largest (easiest to hit) saucer, and the highest score for the smallest (hardest to hit) saucer.
The finished game
To play the game, just line up the saucers with the largest one closest to you, and the smallest one farthest away. The distance between the saucers can vary depending on the age and skill level of those playing. Then have the kids take turns tossing the bags onto the targets of their choice, and score them for any successful hits. Easy and fun!
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22 comments so far:
this is such a cool idea! thanks for sharing
We do alot of camping in our popup and to the traditional wooden cornhole frames are just to heavy and bulky to haul around. I am planning on using your idea but with twist: cheap dollar store pie tins. They won’t be different sizes but they will stack well and not break in our camper. Big plus is how light weight the whole thing will be.
Thanks for the great idea.
dot, thanks!
Kriscake, great idea!
Love this idea! I couldn’t resist adding this to our link luv roundup. Come take a peek:
http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2009/06/link-luv-roundup_27.html
Oh My I LOVE this idea! THanks so very much!!!
Thanks, Becca and luvinthemommyhood!
love it! few questions. how to play, keep score and who wins?
Hi Rachel. You can make up whatever rules you like, depending on the age of the kids playing. A good starting point is to just have each child toss each bean bag once and then add up his or her score. Whomever has the most points after everyone has taken a turn wins!
Hello all! I am a music therapist and I use music paired with colored bean bags all the time to teach colors, and I was thinking that you could paint a target and a bean bag to match. You could also paint numbers on a bag and on the targets. This way its a game AND learning all at the same time!
Jennie, I really like the idea of making it an educational game!
This is so cute! We are going to do this for our 4th of July picnic! I lnked to it at my blog, http://www.squarepennies.blogspot.com. Thanks again for a great craft!
That’s great, Maggie! We’d love to see how it comes out
Love this!! Thanks for sharing.
I just finished painting the bean bag pockets for our game. Can’t wait to share it with the children next week! Thanks for the great ideas!
Cornhole is too big to take camping! I modified this by using plastic saucers (could even use cheap plastic plates) but I drilled a hole in the middle to accomodate a tent stake so that when they throw the bean bag it doesn’t move the saucer.
Great idea, Jenae!
We love this game, but we did it with a twist. Instead of counting just points we made the numbers smaller amounts and eveytime the grandkids hit a target they got that many jelly bellies. Like an instant win. Of course we did this after lunch or dinner.
Great idea, Lois! Thanks for sharing.
What a super fun idea and I love the way you incorporated sewing with the bean bags. I’ve included this tutorial in a little collection I put together… http://darlingadventures.com/?p=999
Thanks!
Thanks for including us in your collection, Ginny!
Such a cute idea….thanks for sharing!
This idea is even good for older adults for a group activity. Maybe give a 1,2,3rd, prize..for total points…