Lyndsey Sunday Funday! I am always looking for opportunities for a good crafting project. It’s definitely a plus if it’s cute, useful, and can get the kids involved! This craft project has all these pluses, and to add to it, you get a game out of it to play with the kids (although it will have to wait 72 hours)!
This Sunday it was supposed to be rainy and cold, but the weather prediction was wrong, and it ended up being a beautiful day, which is a win in my book every time! I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and start this craft I had been waiting to do for quite a while, outdoor Tic Tac Toe boards!
These boards are beautiful, and they are useful. They should be durable enough to withstand the use of playing games on these, and my son is super excited to try ours out! Plus, they would make a great mother’s day gift! The step by step instructions are below, and I have included a quick overview video at the end of this post.
Another plus, we already had the wood rounds from our wedding and rocks in our yard, so I knew I just had to take advantage of these supplies.
Supplies Needed:
Links included for convenient purchase may have commission, but does not affect the price to you.
- Wood Rounds (you will want at least 9″ rounds)
- Rocks (you will want 2-3″ rocks, we had these in our yard, but you can purchase better shaped ones)
- Sanding Sponges (or sand paper, you’ll want at least medium and fine grit)
- Paint Brushes (you don’t need anything fancy, but the variety of sizes is nice)
- Wood Stain (this is the color I used, but you can use any color you’d like)
- Polycrylic (any polyurethane will work, but I love the durability and clearness of this one)
- Polyurethane Spray (optional but very easy to use)
- Black Acrylic Paint Marker Medium
- Gloss Acrylic Paint (you can get these individual at many stores, even Walmart, but make sure they are gloss for durability)
- Terry Towels or cotton towels, I found a pack for $5 at Walmart
- Cups of water for rinsing brushes
- Paper plates for paint
- A table that can get messy or a plastic cover (we used an old door on sawhorses)
How to make the tic tac toe game (overview):
- Gather supplies and set up your workstation
- Sand your wood rounds starting course and getting finer
- Lightly stain your wood rounds
- Paint your lines on your wood round, two vertical, two horizontal
- Spray polyurethane on your wood rounds to coat and secure edges
- Start painting your rocks (they will need more than one coat)
- Flip wood round and spray the other side
- Continue painting rocks
- Let rocks dry and paint Polycrylic onto wood rounds
- Once rocks are coated nicely and dry, add “O”‘s and “X”‘s with black paint marker
- Flip wood round and paint polycrylic on the other side
- Once rocks have dried, spray each side with polyurethane spray
- Let everything dry, then allow to cure for 72 hours
Detailed Steps
Step 1: Get all your supplies together. Check your rocks for dirt and wipe them off very well. If they require washing they will need to dry completely before painting. Choose the paint colors you will be using and put at least a tablespoon on a paper plate, using 1 plate per color. Choose the paint brushes you are going to use, and if alternating paint colors with 1 brush, get some cups of water for rinsing in between colors. Open up your polycrylic and mix it with a paint stirrer or something disposable. Shake up your can of9 polyurethane. Don’t get your supplies ready if you aren’t ready to start, the acrylic paints and polycrylic are both very fast drying.
Step 2: Now you are going to sand your wood rounds to get rid of any splinters, ridges and roughness. My kid helped with this part, he thought sanding the wood was pretty cool! You will want to start with a course sand paper to sand around the wood/bark line, and to wear down any ridges. Once you have finished with your course sanding sponge you will want to drop down to a fine sanding sponge to smooth out the surface nicely. BE VERY CAREFUL when sanding around the bark, when the wood is dried and cut thin, it can break off easily and keeping the bark gives it a nice natural or rustic look. Make sure to sand both sides. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you will want it to be somewhat smooth. Once you have finished sanding, knock or blow all the wood dust off.
Step 3: Next you are going to lightly stain your wood. You can absolutely skip this step, but I feel like it gives a very nice contrast and makes the rings stand out more. You won’t want to use too much stain as raw wood like this absorbs stain super fast! You can use a wood conditioner to make this application smoother, but I didn’t have any and didn’t mind some imperfections. When staining, use a terry cloth or cotton cloth and dip a small portion into the stain. I blotted mine off onto another towel to lessen the amount I started out with. Start in the center as the middle of a tree absorbs stain differently than the outside. Use very light pressure. Work in circular motions outward following the rings of the wood. If you start running out of stain in your cloth apply more pressure. If you need to re-dip, you will want to blot and start in the center again. Stain both sides of the wood ring. I would suggest starting with the bottom to get a feel for it. Keep in mind the Polycrylic will make this much darker.
Step 4: After your stain has dried, it will be time to paint your tic tac toe lines onto the top side of your wood ring. Again, this doesn’t have to be perfectly centered or perfectly spaced as long as you are happy with it. I choose my line placement by placing a stir stick as a straight edge on the wood round to determine where I want my lines. I also used this stir stick as a straight edge to paint my line up against to make sure the wood texture didn’t cause my lines to curve. I used black acrylic paint on a paper plate, and not the paint pen, as I wanted my line to be bold and stand out well against the wood grain. You may have to brush back and forth on the line quite a few times to make it solid because the wood absorbs the paint quickly.
Step 5: Once your paint dries you will want to spray the wood round with polyurethane spray. I took my wood round out into the yard, and placed it on a board to get it away from the grass and dirt, but also away from my kids. If you haven’t spray painted before, please READ THIS: you want to spray in spritzes lightly back and forth to gently coat the wood, if you spray to much at one time it will pool and run and not look good. You can use the spray a lot thicker around the bark to help secure it to work with moving forward. Spray just until your wood starts changing color and has an even coat. Allow the first side to dry before flipping the wood round.
Step 6: While you wait for the polyurethane spray to dry, you can start painting the first coat of paint on your rocks. For us, this part was already done. I made multiple boards, and my son was painting rocks while I was spraying the boards with polyurethane. One of his favorite things is collecting rocks and painting, so this was the best craft ever! He really enjoyed painting multiple colors on the rocks, they were looking pretty awesome! He was using his paper paint brushes to paint the rocks, I would highly suggest using a 1/2″ to 1″ paint brush for this, since the rocks are 2″ – 3″ around, the finish will be a lot smoother. Keep in mind, if you are using completely unpolished rocks the paint will absorb and slightly change color. Don’t use highly polished rocks either, as the paint will just chip off the polish. Our rocks were unpolished and they turned out beautiful. Start by painting one side of the rocks, waiting for that side to dry, and flipping to the other side. I found it easier to just hold the rock in between my fingers while painting it.
Step 7: Check your wood round to see if the polyurethane spray has dried by lightly touching the surface to see if it’s tacky (sticky). If it’s dry, flip it to the other side and repeat step 5.
Step 8: While waiting for the other side of the wood round to dry, continue painting your rocks. If you are painting in light enough coats, each coat will dry fairly quickly. You can start painting the next coat on as soon as the paint doesn’t feel tacky anymore. Repeat step 6 to continue painting your rocks until they are as coated as you would like. I would suggest a fairly decent coating (at least 3 coats) to make sure they don’t chip easily.
Step 9: As your paint is drying on your rocks, you can start coating your wood round in Polycrylic. The great thing about Polycrylic is that is dries very clear and durable, as long as you are coating it properly. You will want to use a larger paint brush, such as a 2″ or 2.5″ brush. The wood will absorb this Polycrylic very quickly, so don’t be afraid to lather it on the wood round itself. Be more careful once you get closer to the edges, you don’t want it to pool under your wood round and form bubbles/foam that will not dry clear. On the other hand, you also want to make sure to coat the bark very well, so find a happy medium where you are coating the bark, but not pooling the Polycrylic. I painted this on following the rings in the wood so that this dried with the texture of the wood. I wanted the natural feel to the wood, so I only did 2 coats. You will want to sand down any imperfections in the Poly in between coats. This Polycrylic is fast drying, so don’t leave it open for too long, and don’t let the paint brush sit for more than 10 minutes. Allow the first side to dry before flipping the wood round. I highly suggest starting with the bottom side, so if there is any pooling under the wood round, it will be more likely to happen on the second coat leaving the pooling on the bottom side of the wood.
Step 10: By the time you finish your first coat of Polycrylic, your rocks will likely be dry. If they are dry, you can start painting your “X”‘s and “O”‘s on the rocks. Make sure you count them out and have an even amount of each if you are using different colors! For this step, you will want to use the black paint marker. The marker allows you to write on the letters, instead of fighting trying to nicely paint them onto a small surface. The paint marker (if new) will need to be primed. Shake your paint marker very well, and then uncap and push the tip of the marker onto a surface that can have paint on it. Hold it pushed down until paint fully coats the tip of the marker. Once it is primed, you are set to start writing. This paint will need to dry just like any other Acrylic paint.
Step 11: While your letters on your rocks dry, you can flip your wood round and apply the Polycrylic to the other side. If you had pooling, be sure to sand it down before starting to coat this side. Repeat step 9 on this side.
Step 12: Once your rocks are completely dry, you can spray them with the Polyurethane spray. I highly suggest not skipping this step, otherwise they will start chipping when they get knocked together after a while. Although the gloss sheen of acrylic paint does offer more durability, it doesn’t offer the same durability that a polyurethane does. I placed my rocks onto a spare piece of plywood we had in our garage, and used this as a backing to keep them out of the grass and dirt (everything it touches will stick to it, and ruin your durability). Spray, just like in step 5, using thin even coats. You will be able to see where this is applied as it will become very shiny. Don’t use too much, or it will create runs in your finish. Let one side dry before flipping and moving to the next. You can do as many coats as you would like, I did 2 coats on each side.
Step 13: Allow everything to dry until it isn’t tacky to the touch, and then you can move it to fully dry and cure. Do not place the rocks on top of the wood boards to dry, as the polyurethane and plycrylic will bind to each other and cause the paint on the rocks to stick to the board itself. These are best left to dry on something that doesn’t have a poly coating on it, such as a piece of parchment paper or tin foil, although not entirely necessary. The curing process for most polyurethanes is about 72 hours, so you will want to wait to use these boards regularly until the 72 hour mark is passed.
Now it is time to enjoy your creation!
Check out the video below for an overview of these tic tac toe boards!
If any of these steps don’t make sense, or if you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments. For more posts like this, you can subscribe to my blog to receive email updates of new posts!
