4 outdoor games for the park or camping that are easy to make yourself

UPDATE DAY

The sun is coming and with it the desire to enjoy the outdoors. But finding the right accessories is sometimes complicated (we all do it at the same time!), and summer games are often far too expensive and of poor quality.

But for all these summer objects and games, you can easily make them yourself, alone or with your family, very simple or completely personalized! And we speak from experience, Montrealers make these creations every week in the collective workshops of Les Affûtés.

Game of rings

1 . Game of rings

There are dozens of variations of this game of skill. Here are some tips for making one beautiful and durable.

• Use cedar, which will last much longer outdoors, or pine (but then we advise you to store it indoors). Boards 15-25″ long will be fine, secured with screws.
• For the posts, you can easily buy 3⁄4″ thick dowels, and cut them between 5″ and 7″ long. They are sturdy and you can use the scraps to make an indoor pegboard. To attach them, just make a 3⁄4 ” hole in the boards.
• For the hoops, hot glued rope or folded PVC pipes work perfectly.
• You can easily add a hook to the back of the game to turn it into a wall game and hang it in your alley, for example.

2. Molkky's Set

• Easiest is to buy hardwood dowels 3 in to 4 in thick directly. Then just cut at a 45 degree angle. The ideal is to use a bandsaw, in a workshop like Les Affûtés, but you can also do it with a hand saw, taking care to block your dowels carefully on a workbench.
• To make the paint and the numbers last, several coats of exterior varnish are also recommended here, at the very end.

Set of pockets

3. Pocket set

• Cut a plywood board around 12″ wide and 24″ long, then color it with a few coats of paint. Just remember to apply 2 to 3 coats of exterior varnish, once the painting is done.
• For the holes, you can use hole saws or a jigsaw.
• Let your children have fun with the decoration, so the game will be unique.
• For the bags (which can be sewn with burlap), you can fill them with corn kernels (the original version), or simply with rice.

Giant Jenga Game

4. Giant Jenga

To make a giant Jenga set, you will need little technique, but patience!

• The most important thing is the regularity of the pieces. The wood doesn't matter (pine will be fine, for example), and you can have fun with the dimensions (between 3 and 10 inches in length. But once you've decided, all the pieces will have to be the same dimension.
• We therefore recommend that you use a miter saw, which is much more regular than a hand saw.
• If your pieces are too irregular, you can very well convert them in dominoes.