Inspired by a project she saw in a booklet from Lowe’s, Kristi (aka Cupcake Mama) from Cupcake Daze came up with her own version of a slate tile tic-tac-toe board.  She used a slate floor tile as the base, with felt stick-on pads underneath to avoid scratching your table top.  The X and O markers are made by simply painting the letters onto stones, which her daughter helped to do.  Her blog is full of other fun, kid-oriented ideas as well, so be sure to drop by and look around!  [how to make a slate tile tic-tac-toe board]

While you probably won’t be able to find a slate tile at the dollar store, most home improvement stores should have them for around $2 each.  Her stones are river rocks from the dollar store, but you could easily collect your own off the ground; just make sure you wash and dry them well so that the paint will stick.

Project estimate:

• Slate tile, $2
• 10 stones, free or $1
• Stick-on felt pads, $1
• White paint, on hand or $1
• Polyurethane, on hand or $5 and up

Total:  $3 and up

You could adapt this idea for other classic board games as well.  For example, painting the slate with a checkered grid makes it perfect for both checkers and chess.  Paint stones red and black to make game pieces for checkers; make them stackable by adding stick-on Velcro tabs to the top and bottom of each stone.  For chess pieces, paint the names of the pieces on the stones.  You could also use the initial of each piece name (K for king, Q for queen, and so on) or, if you are artistic, paint images on the stones representing the different chess pieces.