Mikado game cover |Keeping it Real

Monday, January 12, 2015

Mikado game cover

This week, in between putting away the Christmas decorations and taking care of several tons of laundry, I didn't have a lot of time for crafting. But because I'm forcing myself to work on decluttering and complete at least one project a week, I found something that is a little bit of both.

I've had a set of Mikado sticks in one of my desk drawers for several years now. It came to our house as a gift from a newspaper or a magazine, I can't remember, but my kids never played with it.

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover


Now, we love Mikado at our house. I personally think it's a game that helps children develop fine motor skills, concentration and simple math concepts (if you make them add the points in the end). But my kids have two other sets they play with, so this one was never used.

Several times I thought of re-gifting it, but since it didn't come with a box or a set of rules (or maybe it came and they got lost along the way), it was just left in the drawer.

Now that I'm totally committed to declutter the house I decided that this Mikado had to be made presentable. After much debating, I thought a bag would be the most appropriate packaging.

I went online and googled around for the rules, and then adapted the text to the stick colors I was working with. While I was at it, I also made a tag, printed everything, cut to size and then laminated both the rules and the tag. I also added an eyelet to the tag.

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover


Then I cut a piece of felt slightly larger than the printed rules and long enough to be folded to form a bag.

I sewed on bot sides, with a piece of elastic tucked in one of the sides.

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover

Before pinning the elastic, I passed it through the tag eyelet, so that when the bag was turned inside out I had an elastic to close the bag with the tag in place.

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover
mikado, mikado game, handmade cover

Now, with a little imagination and a bit of sewing, I have a game of Mikado that can easily be used as a gift for any of the zillion birthday parties my kids are invited to along the school year and one less item cluttering my drawers.

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover

mikado, mikado game, handmade cover

After this, I then thought that making my own Mikado sticks might not even be that difficult. How cute would a washi tape Mikado look?

Enjoy,
keeping it real, craft blog


8 comments:

  1. This is so clever! Making your own sticks would be fun too. I'm going to make a nephew a set.

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    1. Thank you. Yes, I think the sticks will be very easy to make. As soon as I have time I'm going to make a girly set using washi tape...

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  2. Such a neat idea! :)

    Thanks for joining the Link Up this week!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by Jess, have a wonderful week!

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  3. I've never heard of this game!! I'm going to google it!! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday!! Come back next week and share your stuff!!

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    Replies
    1. It's a great game, especially to play with kids. Google it and have fun!

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  4. What a great idea, I am working on decluttering too, I wonder what I could clean up and make presentable rather than toss out. Thanks for linking up to Snickerdoodle Sunday.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by, and good luck with your decluttering!

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