DIY GIANT PICK UP STICKS TUTORIAL
I hope you had a great mother’s day. We did. I didn’t fully understand, growing up, what an honor it is to be part of this club of womenhood. Now to join this group who leaves notes in lunches and goes to school board meetings and looks out for neighbors, it’s like a shirt I never thought would fit and am so thrilled to see it does.
I’ve was surprised with a little Mother’s Day treat from a fellow mom. I hope I remember to try this next year. What a great little rally of support. I think it is so completely wonderful. We munched on our treat outside in the amazing spring weather. My hubbie mowed a crooked race trail through our field which the kids took at full speed. And, since it was the perfect weather for lawn games, we decided to make one of our own: giant pick up sticks.
We started with 5/16-inch dowels. The only problem is they need a tapered end, or during the game you will have a rough time picking up the final few sticks. If you can get your hands on a belt sander this will be a quick job. I did 16 dowels in under ten minutes, and was careful to make them tapered but not sharp.
We used acrylic paint that was slightly watered down to paint both ends of the dowels. For pick up sticks proper you need 1 black (25 points), 7 red (10 points), 7 blue (5 points), 8 green (2 points), and 7 yellow (1 point). But we took some artistic liberties.
I put together a quick canvas carrying bag, and then we were ready for a little friendly competition.
I’ve thrown together a new gift guides page, incase you’re like me and like to see as many ideas as possible in one glance.
Tags: country life, DIY gifts a man can make, DIY gifts by GiversLog, DIY handmade gifts, gifts for outdoors, gifts for the grandkids, gifts for the whole family
May 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
We had these when I was in kindergarten! I love this idea, I’ll be linking. The colors you used are so much fun!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
these are so cute and easy! will have to make these.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Oh, you crack me up. That picture of the lone cookie is hilarious. Btw, the plate I got at Target for 20 cents! I occasionally scour the ends of aisles for clearance plates to give baked goods to people. They’re great–I just keep forgetting to tell people that they don’t need to give them back–they can use the plate to “pay it forward.” =)
May 12th, 2009 at 5:19 am
what a great idea + what great photos!
May 12th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I love these photos. Especially the one from the field. That just looks like bliss. Thanks for sharing.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:32 am
so clever! And they turned out fantastic. Love the photos.
May 17th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Can I live your life?
July 4th, 2009 at 4:50 am
[...] old boy and I remembered seeing a blog post for Giant Pick up Sticks. There’s also this Giant Pick Up Sticks Tutorial. We used decorative tape instead of paint to differentiate the sticks. To make the storage case I [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Thanks! I took your idea and used it in my 15-16 yr old Sunday School class. I painted the tips red and green. The lesson was on apostasy. On the red sticks I had the kids write something that might cause a person to apostatize and on the green they wrote something that would keep them close to the gospel. Then we played pick-up sticks. The kids loved it. They tried to only pick up the green ones. Then when we were done, they all wanted to read what was on the sticks they collected. Most of them had never heard of the game.