DIY Tic Tac Toe Board

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With Christmas right around the corner, now's the time to start planning your homemade gifts. Use these step-by-step instructions and a few inexpensive dollar-store items to craft a DIY Tic Tac Toe board game for the hard-to-buy people on your list.

A wooden tic-tac-toe game board with red and black blocks marked with X and O. The game is in progress, with X blocking O in the central row. Additional blocks are scattered around the board.Pin
Photo Credit: An Off Grid Life.

Are you planning a simpler holiday season this year? I am. Over the past five or so years, I've been trying to replace some of the "store-bought" gifts I give with homemade ones.

Last year I experimented with a mason jar pancake mix that turned out really well. And the girls and I have had so much fun making peppermint foot scrubs to give as gifts, too. In fact, we've made several types of sugar scrub soaps and other homemade health and beauty products. 

This year, I'm sharing a couple of new DIY gift items for my family members who aren't as interested in beauty products.  And one of the easiest is this DIY Tic Tac Toe board game. 

They're inexpensive to make, so it's easy to create several wooden games to gift. If you have time, consider sewing a simple cloth gift bag with a drawstring, as it makes it easier to keep all the pieces together.

DIY Tic Tac Toe Board Game

A wooden tic-tac-toe game with black and red blocks, displaying X's and O's. The game board is made of a small wooden tray with dividers. Some blocks are placed inside, while others are scattered outside.Pin
Photo Credit: An Off Grid Life.

One of the things I love about this project is that it's so easy even a child can make it and give it as a Christmas gift. The supplies are easy to find on Amazon, Dollar Tree, or Walmart.

It's also an easy project to customize by choosing colors or painting a cute design on the board. In fact, you could even create a cute and easy DIY Tic Tac Toe Board for your family. That way, you can take it in the car to keep kids occupied during long trips or while waiting at doctor appointments.

Supplies Needed

A wooden box lies next to a ruler, paint brushes, acrylic paints, wooden blocks, and paint markers on a dark wooden surface.Pin
Supplies for DIY tic tac toe board. Photo Credit: An Off Grid Life.

Now, I can get all my supplies for this DIY Tic Tac Toe board at the local Dollarama dollar store. That includes the paint, tray, and wooden cubes.

  • Unfinished Wood Trays
  • Unfinished wood cubes
  • Craft paint
  • Paint Pens
  • Paintbrushes
  • Wood coffee stirrers or think craft sticks
  • Glue gun

You'll find the Amazon links down below if you'd rather buy them online. 

How to Make a Wooden Tic Tac Toe Board

Paint the entire unfinished wooden tray in the color of your choice. Let it dry completely. Add a second coat if needed. And once again, dry completely.

Cut two long wooden coffee stirrers a little smaller than the inside of your tray. Next, cut six short pieces. The wood is thin enough to cut with a good pair of scissors. 

Your short pieces need to make up the cross pieces of the tray and should be just shorter than the width of your tray minus the width of the long pieces.

Hot glue the pieces into place. Then choose two colors to paint the wooden tic tac toe board game pieces.

I use two easy methods to paint small pieces like the blocks. First, you could place them in a paper cup and roll them around in paint, using a paintbrush to coat them.

Or you could use paint on a baby wipe to rub paint all over the cube. Either way works just fine.

Dry the painted wood squares on a piece of waxed paper or silicone mat so they don't stick as they would on paper.

Once dry, use your paint pens to make x's in one color on half the blocks and o's in the other color on the other blocks. Let them dry. Honestly, I found the paint markers dry pretty quickly and should be ready to use in an hour or so.

Tip: You can also use the little tray to store all your tic-tac-toe pieces when not in use.

A wooden tic-tac-toe game with black and red blocks, displaying X's and O's. The game board is made of a small wooden tray with dividers. Some blocks are placed inside, while others are scattered outside.

How to Make a Wooden DIY Tic Tac Toe Board Game

Yield: 1 game
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 20 minutes
Additional Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $10

Create a fun DIY Tic Tac Toe wood board game for your family. Learn how to make this simple, timeless game with easy step-by-step instructions.

Materials

  • unfinished wooden tray
  • unfinished wooden cubes
  • unfinished wooden craft sticks or coffee stirrers

Tools

  • craft paint
  • paintbrushes
  • paint pens
  • hot glue gun with glue sticks

Instructions

  1. Paint the entire unfinished wooden tray in the color of your choice. Let it dry completely. Add a second coat if needed. And once again, dry completely.
  2. Cut two long wooden coffee stirrers a little smaller than the inside of your tray. Next, cut six short pieces. The wood is thin enough that you can cut it with a good pair of scissors. 
  3. Your short pieces need to make up the cross pieces of the tray and should be just shorter than the width of your tray, minus the width of the long pieces.
  4. Hot glue the pieces into place.
  5. Choose two significantly different colors to paint the wooden tic tac toe board game pieces.
  6. There are two easy methods I use for painting small pieces like the blocks. First, you could  place them in a paper cup and roll them around in paint, using a paintbrush to coat them.
  7. Or you could use paint on a baby wipe to rub paint all over the cube. Either way works just fine.
  8. Dry the painted wood squares on a piece of waxed paper or silicone mat so that they don't stick as they would on paper.
  9. Once dry, use your paint pens to make x’s in one color on half the blocks and o’s in the other color on the other blocks. Let them dry. Honestly, I found the paint markers dry pretty quickly and should be ready to use in an hour or so.

Notes

You can also use the little tray to store all your tic-tac-toe pieces when not in use.

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A wooden Tic Tac Toe board is set up with X and O pieces. The image has a red banner with text reading "DIY Tic Tac Toe Board Game" at the top and a website link at the bottom.Pin

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