My husband and I always make our children at least one homemade gift each year for Christmas. Sometimes they are a hit and sometimes they are a miss.
Luckily last year our idea was a hit. A BIG one!
A family set of over sized Dominoes!
My husband cut the set out of pine planks from Home Depot and each domino is roughly 3 and 1/2 inches by 5 inches. (Which has been a perfect size!)
Then he used a saw to cut the middle notch. (Being careful not to cut through the domino.) And finally he used a drill to make the dots on each piece. (Again being careful not to drill through the entire board.)
So what did I do you ask. Welllllll…besides telling my husband what to do 🙂 I used the belt sander to round the edges and used my mini sander to smooth out any other rough spots.
And because of the illness that followed us around for weeks during the holiday season last year we completed this entire project on Christmas Eve….after 10…out in the garage using loud power tools. Which is why all of our neighbors love us.
Anyways, I think the Dominoes ended up being everyone’s favorite gift. The kids have played with them all year. In fact they were out again this week being set up across the kitchen floor and down the stairs to be knocked over by Ruth.
Really, these things have taken a beating. They have been played with both outside and inside…they have been played as a game, as blocks, and set up over and over again to be knocked down one by one.
And I love them. No batteries, no mess, and lots of creative fun.
Hooray for the over sized Dominoes….and please let us think of something as fun to make for the kids this year. (And please let us get whatever it is finished before midnight on Christmas Eve!)
-liZ
I love these, I am wondering if I can get my husband to make these for me.
You should totally have him do it. They really are a lot of fun!
-liZ
We love dominoes! And I totally read this as 3 feet by 5 at first, I think because I wanted them to be super huge. And I’m a bit disappointed that you didn’t go that big. Still cool, but just sayin’ 🙂
Fantastic idea – and the quilt you’re giving away is absolutely beautiful – I’d never want to part with it if I had made on that looked like that!
Sabra,
They would be freaking awesome if they were huge!
And don’t think that my husband didn’t reaaallllly want to make them ginormica…but then I reminded him about that giant Jenga set that my sister in law showed him on pinterest….and how it would cost more to buy the wood than it did to go on a weekend get away…and then he decided that a smaller scale of over sized would do just nicely.
And it luckily it has! 🙂
-liZ
How many dominos did you make? This would be great for the grands! Thanks for sharing
That is such a great, fun idea. When I was growing up my Dad made each of us a wooden card holder for playing cards. It was a great way for a child with small hands to hold a”hand” of cards for playing “Go fish” or any other card game. It was a small wooden board that had a grove at a slant that allow the cards to be lined up so you could see them well. We used them
over and over again. Homemade gifts are some if the best.
I want to know how many you made for your set, too! And what length of 1″x4″s did you use?
We made 64. (Our set only goes up to the 8’s). My husband still wants to complete the set up to 12’s but we’ve never done it.
Oh my goodness! I love that idea!
-liZ
We made 64. (Our set only goes up to the 8’s.) And I just asked my husband and what length he used and he said he doesn’t remember…probably what ever he could get the most wood for the least cost 🙂
liZ