Shot through the heart! In a holiday season full of frills, this Valentine’s themed game is on target for both boys and girls. It has all the fun of darts, minus the danger, plus your kids will be too distracted playing to even notice their working on their addition skills.

To make the dartboard and arrows you will need:

• Felt in red, pink, blue, orange, purple                                                                        (use a 18×18-inch piece for the base & 9 x 12-inch sheets for other colors)
• Standard scissors (sewing size are helpful too!)
• 1 large piece of cardboard
• Pencil
• Marker
• Paper straws
• Styrofoam balls (same amount as straws)
• Adhesive Velcro dots (5 per arrow)
• Sparkly tape
• Tacky glue
• Rope

1. Fold your base color piece of felt in half and cut out a large heart on the fold.

2. Repeat step one with the rest of your felt colors, using the previous heart as a guideline to cut the next heart slightly smaller. Make sure to leave approximately an inch between colors so there’s plenty of space for the arrows to land!

3. Use a marker to outline numbers 1 through 4 on extra felt from the center heart (in our case orange). Use leftover felt from the second smallest heart to create a 5 for the center heart. Smaller sewing scissors work best for cutting out the numbers.

4. Apply tacky glue to the edge of each heart and attach them in consecutive layers.

5. Use tacky glue to attach the numbers on the top left edge of each heart layer in ascending order with 1 on the outer heart and 5 in the center.

6. Trace your heart onto a piece of cardboard with a pencil and cut it out with scissors. Secure the felt to the cardboard with tacky glue.

7. Cut a few feet of rope and attach to the back of the cardboard with tape.

– and your board is done! To make the arrows:

1. Cover one end of each straw with a 2 inch piece of tape folded in half over the top.

2. Trim the tape into an angled “V” shape and cut small slits on each side to create a feather.

3. Trim each straw to about 5-inches long. To make your arrow tip, insert the straw into the center of a styrofoam ball and secure with tacky glue.

4. Finally, stick five scratchy (not soft) halves of circular velcro around the styrofoam ball to help increase the likelihood of little hands making their target.

February 13, 2017| Games & Activities, Holidays, Toys, Uncategorized, Valentine's Day