Kitchen Sink Stamps Project of the Month: Tic Tac Toe Game

During this time of year, everyone's busy getting ready for the holidays and looking for gift ideas for everyone on their gift-giving list. With that I mind, for December’s Project of the Month at Kitchen Sink Stamps, I have a great project idea for holiday gift giving that’s quick, easy, inexpensive and fun! What more could you want for the holidays??

I’m going to show you how you can create a tic tac toe game that will provide hours of entertainment for friends and family. Here are the materials you’ll need to complete this project:
6” square ceramic tile (like the ones used on the walls of shower stalls; they should be less than $1 per tile)
ruler
medium tip permanent marker in a dark color
stamps (here, I’m using the Playful Stars set from KSS)
ink (Staz-on and some Palette colors work best)
acrylic spray sealer
felt pads
clear glass pebbles (the kind you use to fill in vases; you can buy them at craft stores in a bag)
circle punches that match or are close to the size of glass pebbles
cardstock scraps
clear glue, like Crystal Effects or Glossy Accents

Start by wiping the tile free of any dirt or dust. I just use a baby wipe or damp paper towel to do this. Then, use your ruler and permanent marker to create a grid on the tile. I make marks at two inch intervals (2" and 4") in two different places on the board, as shown in the photo here. Then I use a ruler to connect the dots.

Once the first set of lines are drawn, I rotate the board and make a second set of dots, again at two inch intervals. Again, I use a ruler to connect the dots. This completes the grid pattern on the game board.

Stamp your images in the center of each square. I've found that Staz-on and some colors of Palette inks work best for this. Here, I alternated two different images using different colors for a colorful board.

It may take a little trial and error to get a crisp, clean stamped image. The nice thing about working with the smooth tile is that it’s somewhat forgiving. If you smudge it or make a mistake when you stamp, you can wipe it off with the baby wipe while it’s still damp. Then you can re-stamp the image after the tile is completely dry.

Let the stamped images set for a while, then cover with a light coat of matte acrylic spray sealer. Be sure to hold the spray sealer a little bit away from the tile to prevent smudging of the stamped images. I've found that the Patricia Nimock brand works pretty well.

After the sealer has dried, add felt or foam pads to the back of the tile at each corner. This prevents the tile from scratching the surface it’s set on.

To make the game pieces, select an image to use, then stamp the image 5 times in one color and 5 times in a different, contrasting color. Here, I used the same star images and colors as I used on the tile to coordinate with the game board.

Use a circle punch to punch out the image (here, I used a 1 1/4" circle punch). Use the clear glue to attach the circles to the flat side of the glass pebbles. I've found it works best to place a blob of glue on the flat side of the glass pebble, then press the pebble down on the stamped image. You can see the glue spreading to cover the image.

Here's another example of a finished tic tac toe board and game pieces. This one uses leaf and acorn images from the Autumn Squirrel set. There are so many themes for these sets--I'm thinking that I may try one using the Love & Luck set next . . .