Checkerboard from Under My Umbrella

Hey all :)  It's Melinda from over at Under My Umbrella.  I love crafting with my kids and am thrilled to show you the project we worked on but first a short story.  It seems my crafting experience always come with a story or two.  When Wendy (from Craft Goodies)  moved she left a bunch of large wooden circles outside her house (We are neighbors).  Well...my husband couldn't just let it sit there.  He brought it home to me and said he was sure I could do something with it.  I did have the best intentions but never did anything with them.  They sat in my garage taking up space for a year or two. Wendy ended up moving back down the street.  That was my motivation to do something with them.  I told her I needed to used them and came up a family checkerboard.  My kids love it and were begging to play with it right away.

I simply painted the circular board cream.  Taped off the checkboard and painted the squares red.  Last, I added some vinyl for decoration.  I need to go grab a lazy susan so that baby can spin. 

Now for the parts where my kids come in!  The wanted to make the checker pieces so I pulled out a bunch of materials for them to choose from.  Buttons are the winner!  The funny thing is once one kid decided to use buttons the rest of them had to also.

I love how amazing kids are at crafting when you just leave them alone and let them do their thing.

 

Anyone up for a game of checkers?   They are all taking turns playing right now with the neighbor kids.  It seems everyone is very protective of the ones they made.

 

 

This was a fun craft for everyone and will  provide some family fun also.  I think I'm going to flip it and make something fun on the other side so it can be displayed both ways.  Yay!  Thanks Wendy for the great ideas.   As usual...I can't wait to see the creative stuff you all do with your kids.