How to Make a Bean Bag Toss Game

Complete with decorative wood burning, because I wasn't already doing enough crazy things getting ready for Bubba's birthday party.

I found instructions on this guy's blog called Wayne of the Woods and we pretty much followed them exactly. I convinced my dad and brother to build it, and I wood burned a pattern into it. I think that my inner pyromaniac has been stifled for too long. I had to give up jewelry making and blacksmithing hobbies when pregnant with Bubba, and since then it has just been to busy to pick them back up again. So I jumped at the chance to do something creative with fire, since my glass bottle cutting with acetone and string project didn't really go as planned (We'll talk about that one some other time).

To make them you'll need:

(3) 5/8'' particle board, or plywood 2' x 4' for the top and sides of the ramp

(2) 2'' x 4'' x 8' for the underneath supports

(1) 1'' x 3'' x 4' for a bottom support

1/4 pound of 1 5/8'' screws

5 bags of beans

some scrap material for bean bags

So first you drill a hole so you can get the saw in to cut.

Cut out the circle.

Cut the sides of the ramp.

And the back.

Cutting the interior structure.

I drew the pattern that I wanted to wood burn in pencil first.

Then I just followed the lines.

Attach the interior supports.

Screw on the back.

One down, one to go!

We painted them with 2 coats of polyurethane.

On to the homemade bean bags! Made out of old jeans, of course. 

(I guess Bubba's blue jean animal menagerie will have to be 1 animal short)

Cut out 20 squares measuring about 5 inches by 5 inches, and pin them inside out.

Sew most of the way around, leaving about an inch or so open to fill the bags.

Turn them right side out.

Each takes about a cup or so of beans. We use a pea/ black bean mix cause the store didn't have enough bags of one kind.

Pin them shut after filling.

Hand stitch the bags shut.

Ta-Da!