Playing Easter Eggs Chess and Checkers for Kids

So you might have thought A Nest for All Seasons has gone ALL GARDEN -- ALL THE TIME lately, but rest assured, I am still planning many DIYs, arts and crafts for kids and other home-centric posts amidst the garden fever this spring.  With the Better Homes and Gardens contest and the snow FINALLY melting outdoors, it seems plants are on my mind 24-7.  How about you?  Craving tulips yet?

Today we are going to take a little garden break and talk about playing chess and Easter eggs.  This craft ideas for your kids takes just a few minutes to put together, a few dollars to purchase supplies and can provide hours of brain-building fun!  [If you pick up a cheap cutting board at the thrift store and perhaps have the bottlecaps and hot glue on hand like I did -- this project will be SUPER cheap for you!]

Materials:

• Wooden Eggs - small
• Wooden Eggs - large
• Wood Burning Tool
• Bottlecaps
• Hot Glue and Gun
• Cutting board or Scrap wood (I found mine cheap at IKEA)
• Stain pen or woodstain
• Optional - Baby Quail Eggs and Pennies

To differentiate the two sides of the board, one set of eggs needed to be a little different.  While half stayed the natural wood color, the other half got burned.

This is a simple wood burning tool that plugs into the wall and gets VERY hot.  This is definitely not a craft the kids can help with.  To create the lines on the eggs, I held the tool on the top of the egg until it started to smoke a tiny bit (maybe 3 seconds?).  You can feel the wood start to burn and the tool settles into the wood just a fraction.  Once the top is burned, I quickly slide down the side of the egg making a thinner, lighter line that radiates from a central axis (See finished eggs below).

 You could certainly get creative with your wood burning technique, 

or go a completely different route and stain the eggs with a light and dark wood stain, 

paint them, decoupage them - whatever suits your fancy!

Click HERE for the full tutorial or just keep reading below...

As you all know, eggs will not stand up on their own,

 so they need a flat base in order for them to serve as playing pieces.  

Bottlecaps were the perfect base!

 Simply hot glue the bottom of the egg squarely into the cap and your little eggs can now move around the playing board.  

To create the playing board, I used a cheap cutting board (any unfinished piece of wood will work), 

marked off squares and stained every other one with a metallic glaze.

To play a baby version of checkers, the small eggs are used and then "kinged"

by switching out for a large egg when they reach the other side of the board.   

Chess is slightly more complicated, but easy enough for young children, with a large egg serving as the queen, 

smaller eggs serving as bishops and quail eggs (anchored by pennies!) as pawns.

So why not join me for an Eastery game of checkers?!

 If you liked this tutorial, then you might enjoy the BOOK!

Make your own coconut oil.

Gather your own sea salt.

Grow your own grapevines for wreaths.

Give gifts naturally grown and crafted from your backyard garden.

Each chapter focuses on a plant or groups of plants and how to grow them in your home garden.  Then, gather up those natural ingredients and get crafting! From lavender wreaths and hypertufa planters to lambsear angels and pickled tomatoes, there are projects for beginners on up!

Crafting with Nature is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, POWELL's! (!!!!)  Booktopia (Australia!), IndieBound, Alibris, Glose.com, The Book Depository and Walmart.com.  Books are also rolling out to retailers and libraries, so check for them there. 

 If your library does NOT have it yet, this is why you should talk to your librarian!

Want more for free?

For ALL the DIY projects here at the Nest, 

check out the 'for DIY folks' page and click on any link to see that particular post!