DIY Minecraft Bean Bag Toss Game

Is your kid crazy for Minecraft like mine is?

Then, here’s a project you need to make together this summer:

A Minecraft bean bag toss game.

We’re talking endless hours of outdoor summertime fun, not to mention the fun you’ll have making it. And if you’re looking for ideas for Minecraft party games for upcoming birthday celebrations, you need to make one of these.

This post kicks off a new partnership with Gameband, the wearable tech that is a must-have for every Minecraft player. So much more than a USB, Gameband allows you to take your Minecraft worlds with you and play anytime, anywhere on any computer. It’s also a backup device that saves your Minecraft worlds to the cloud, so you’re never at risk of losing them, even if your computer crashes.

Every month, I’ll be sharing a new Minecraft-themed project and talking more about how Gameband enhances the Minecraft gaming experience.

I can’t give too much away yet, but we have a lot of fun ideas in the works, including Minecraft party ideas, kid-friendly craft projects, Minecraft party games, recipes, Minecraft printables, giveaways and more. You can find all my Minecraft posts here.

My son, Jackson, and I are very excited about this partnership and series! As the resident Minecraft expert, he’ll be helping me with all these projects.

The Minecraft ideas we’ll be sharing every month are all things you can make with your kids. It’s all about family bonding time.

We certainly had fun making our Minecraft bean bag toss game. In fact, Jackson said it’s the most fun he’s had all summer! And now we get to spend the rest of the summer having family Minecraft cornhole tournaments. Game on!

To make your own Minecraft bean bag toss game, you will need:

• safety glasses
• 1 2X2 square of plywood
• 1 2X4 board
• tape measure
• Yardstick or T-square
• Pencil
• wood screws
• jigsaw
• drill
• sand paper
• green paint
• paintbrush
• spray acrylic sealer
• black, white and pink felt
• popcorn
• needle and thread
• hot glue

Don’t be intimidated because this project calls for power tools. This was only my third time using a jigsaw, and I was able to cut out this creeper face.

We used a thin sheet piece of plywood for ours, but I would recommend getting something at least 1/2-inch thick for durability since some of the cuts are close together.

Using a tape measure and a ruler or T-square, sketch a creeper face on the sheet of plywood.

Next, drill pilot holes at the corners of the eyes and mouth squares, making sure the holes are large enough to fit your jigsaw blade.

Wearing safety glasses and gloves, use the jigsaw to cut out the creeper’s mouth and eyes. Be sure to allow space between the eyes and mouth. Be careful cutting in these areas so your wood doesn’t split.

I even let Jackson help with some of the jigsawing. I did help him guide the saw, and I also made sure he kept his fingers away from the blade and followed other safety rules.

Once you have your creeper face cut out, you need to make a base for your bean bag toss game.

For ours, we cut down our 2X4 board and attached two 2-foot supports along the bottom of the creeper face, using wood screws.

Then, we attached angled supports from the top of the creeper face to the base. For added support, I added scrap of plywood spanning the two legs of the base. Ideally, you want to use a sturdier board, like a 2X4 for this purpose. But let’s just say I didn’t measure as carefully as I should when cutting my 2X4. So, I had to improvise. I’m planning to replace the span with a thicker board as soon as I can get back to the hardware store.

Before painting our creeper, we used medium grit sandpaper to smooth the edges of the wood and the cuts we made. Be sure to wear gloves to avoid splinters.

Then Jackson and I painted the whole thing green. We used DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish in Fortune. Jackson deemed it the perfect creeper green.

You could certainly spray paint the wood. It’s probably quicker. But with spray paint, it’s harder for the kids to be involved. And Jackson really enjoyed painting our bean bag toss game.

We applied two coats of green paint, and when it was dry, I sealed it with a spray acrylic.

With our frame ready, it was now time to make our bean bags.

Jackson decided they should look like an Enderman.

So, we started with black felt, cut to measure 4.5 inches by 9 inches.

We also cut out pieces of white felt and pink felt to make the Enderman’s eyes.

To make the bean bags, I folded each piece of black felt to form a square, then I stitched around all sides, including the folded side, leaving a 1.5-inch opening on one side to fill the bags. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can hand stitch the bean bags or even hot glue them together.

Using a funnel, Jackson filled each felt bag with popcorn. To make it it easier for him to fill the bags, we put each one in a tin can so he could fill them standing up. I also had him fill them in a box lid to keep popcorn kernels from spilling all over the floor. This also made cleanup easier.

If you don’t have popcorn, you can use deer corn, dried beans or rice to fill your bean bags.

One Jackson had filled the beanbags, I hand stitched them closed, making sure there were no gaps for the corn kernels to escape.

Finally, we hot glued on the felt eyes.

Endermen!

Here’s Jackson practicing his pitching! A hit in the eye is worth one point, and a hit in the mouth is worth three.

This beanbag toss game is a must-have for Minecraft fans, just like the Gameband.

A solidly engineered, secure and durable device, Gameband backs up your Minecraft worlds to the cloud, so you’re never at risk of losing them. And it allows you to take your Minecraft worlds with you and play anytime, anywhere on any computer. Plus, it looks super cool with an animated LED display that players can customize.

Gameband just launched a major software update, which makes it easier to manage mods. The update also introduces a central hub where players can launch Minecraft, manage their Gameband and access the the PixelFurnace app to design custom LED animations for their device.

Here’s a great video about how every Gameband is built.

I can’t tell you how much Jackson loves his Gameband. Aside from the cool factor, it gives us great peace of mind that the worlds he has worked so hard to build won’t be lost because of a computer failure.

And he loves being able to take his worlds with him whenever he visits friends. He’s no longer tethered to our computers.

Don’t miss all the kid-friendly Minecraft ideas from Atta Girl Says for Gameband.