Lego Week- Lego Building Challenge Game

I love a challenge. When I was on a cruise last year, there was a Lego Building Challenge activity that we participated in, and I thought it was so fun! 

I decided I wanted to make a Lego Challenge Game of my own for my son and his cousins. First, I collected the scraps of Lego packaging that I saved. I know, I'm silly, but I love to cut out the pieces of packaging I think I can use on a project. I do it with every single super hero tag off of the clothes I buy. Obviously - it's buy a shirt get an embellishment free!

I used a tag punch to punch out some of that yellow cardboard, which is actually a yellow Lego background. I then cut each red square logo and inked the edges. I found some cute kraft envelopes in my stash and decided I'd use those to hold the challenges.

Next, I put red numbers on the yellow tags, punched small holes in the top of the yellow tags, and put twine through the holes. I attached the tags to the yellow journal cards using red washi tape. 

Lastly. I added some challenges. I thought that the kids could go through each challenge and whoever successfully completes each one wins. They can also roll a dice and just complete the one challenge that matches the number, too! The best part about the washi tape is that it is removable and you can make new journal cards with new challenges. 

The challenges in my game are make a garden, build something you find in the city, make an animal, build a house, build a car, train, or airplane, and make a boat. 

Lucky for you, I have created a Free Printable for you to make one of your own!

I hope you enjoyed! If you're looking for other fun Lego games to play, check out Creationary, this printable lego board game, DIY Lego Land Game, Lego Tic Tac Toe, and Lego Hangman. 

Lego Week: Creationary Review!!

The geniuses at Lego created a game titled, "Creationary."  It is just like "Pictionary" but you build objects with Lego blocks instead of drawing pictures.  This game is for ages 7 and up and is definitely fun for the whole family!

Inside the box, you will find several shapes and sizes of Lego pieces!  There is a variety of colors as well.  There are also three difficulty levels you can play.  For the easiest creations, choose the single question mark cards to play with. 

Some of these cards and categories are quite challenging.  The categories seem to be transportation, buildings, nature, and tools.  Depending on your skill level with the use of Lego blocks, your results will vary greatly!

 My seven year old made this creation:

He drew a "?" card (which is the easy cards) and rolled the dice that chooses your category.  The dice gave him the "building" category in red.  He thought the greenhouse SOLD plants.  The "man" is working at the register.  Those little buttons are plants :)

Just for fun....I looked on Instagram under #creationary.  You should check that out!  There are so many creative builders out there that really know how to use Lego bricks and build masterpieces.  Way to be crafty!

Personally, I am a fan of the game.  You can only improve on your building skills and people of all ages will have fun playing together.  You can't take yourself too seriously with this game.  I am not as skilled as many "Creationary" players, but it was nice to be creative while spending quality time with my son laughing at how silly I made a row boat look with Lego pieces. Good times and family fun!  Enjoy!

DIY Board Game

This Christmas, my family decided to change up our Pollyanna to make it a couples exchange. (When you include Mom & Dad, that's 14 adults and six kids- Pollyanna is necessary!)  Each couple had to give gifts to another couple. We could give them things that were on their wish list or get creative and send them on their dream date. We had very loose guidelines this year. With a tight budget I knew I'd be getting my Pollyanna some gift cards and some gifts that I was going to make myself. Some of the things I made them included an ornament with their names, a scrapbook kit, a date jar, and just printing a family picture out and framing it for them. I also had an idea to recreate one of my favorite board games for them with a personal touch. 

The game my fiance and I decided on was Clue. I've always loved the mystery behind the game! It also reminds me of the game we play before we exchange gifts, guessing who has us. To start, I searched some stores in my area to find the game to recreate. All I could find were hard-to-work-with, newer versions of the game that weren't quite what I was envisioning. I wanted the 80's and 90's version I grew up with.  I went to Etsy and found PaperCreationsbyDeb, who sells a ton of vintage game boards and pieces at great prices. There are a few more of the clue boards on there, too! Since I was only getting the board, I decided I should pick up some game pieces, too. I found these great wooden babies on Etsy by UrbanHomesteaders. I then decided I'd make or find all of the other parts of the game in time for Christmas. 

This version of Clue was made with the thought that each room would be a house owned by one of the families, the characters would be the 6 kids, and the "weapons" would be anything a child could potentially get in a lot of trouble with. I made everyone take a picture of their families, most opted to do it in front of their Christmas Tree. I had two empty spaces left over, so I put a school and a store there, figuring those were the other two places you often take your children. 

The "weapons" were all buttons and charms I found in my mother's stash. I used crayons, a ball, paint, a phone, scissors, and money. You could guess my son getting in trouble with the paint at Nana's house and be completely accurate, by the way. I also found some dice left over from older games. 

To make the cards, I had to decide how big I wanted them to be. I found an envelope that was about 4x5.5 inches in my scrapbook stash. Since you need an envelope to play the game, I used that to make my decision about the sizing of the cards. Each card is about 3.5x5. I found pictures of all the kids with their guiltiest faces and put a line of color and their name at the top. I printed them all out on one sheet of photo matte paper or card stock. I then did the same for all of the houses and the "weapons". For the backs of the cards, I made them all say what category they were and printed them on separate sheets. After I cut everything, I laminated the fronts and backs together.  

I made the clue sheets by creating a grid in excel, including each category and each possibility. I put three across a page and printed it landscape. I then printed several copies so the game could be played many times. 

The board was the trickiest part. I first cut out black card stock for each room and covered most of it, leaving the doors visible so the player knows where to enter  the house. I used my Canon Selphy CP900 printer and the photo app Pic Frame to print out small pictures of all of the family pictures and used adhesive to stick them to the board. I also had to make new blocks for all of the characters and secret passageways. 

After everything was stuck down, I used modpodge to make sure it stayed down. Note- really old modpodge may smudge printed ink. Who knew? The newer bottle I used was fine. The older bottle could possibly be older than me. After that dried, I made the decision to put contact paper over top but it hasn't been staying on very well so we might just take that off. If you are an expert with clear contact paper it could work for you.

And there you have it! A customized board game made with love. Time for a Family Game Night!