Bringing Candy Land to Life

My buddy Jenna and I have hosted a community event entitled "Art at the (lumber)Yard" for two years in a row now. It's been very successful and a great deal of fun both times and we have plans to continue it. I will talk about that more in future blogs. For now, I just wanted to give that tidbit of information to preface the reason that I produced a life-size Candy Land.

It's not an idea original to me. I'd seen similar life-size game boards online. I took a handful of those already-produced ideas (and some of my own) and wha-la!

I ordered the following supplies:
Game board Tiles
Sand Buckets for Gum Drops
Candy Balloons - Combine these with 4' sections of PVC pipe to make larger-than-life suckers
Inflatable Ice Cream Cones
Game board Spinners
Inflatable Donut Lollipops

I purchased the very large lollipop and cupcake inflatables from the clearance aisle at our local Wal-Mart. The bridge at the end of the trail is made from a coffee table that I was getting rid of and two wood boxes I made from scrap lumber. A neighbor girl and I had a fun time painting them.

For the Gingerbread House, I asked our local lumber expert to cut a sheet of cheaper plywood in half and then cut an angled roof on it for me. I painted it brown with leftover spray paint I had on hand. I then painted white windows, a door and icicles on it with a sponge brush for easy control. I added the color dots to it using a circle sponge brush and various colors of craft paint.

To play the game I thought it would be easiest to have the kids carry their own individual spinners so that they wouldn't have to leave their place(s) on the board. I designed four spinners on Photoshop, printed them, laminated them and punched a hole in the center to add the spinners I had purchased.

Jenna's hubby Jason (who loves to help us with all of our crazy ideas) was gracious enough to pound the stakes into the ground, as well as the PVC pipe for the suckers. The one thing I would have done differently is to have the board game on a hard surface as opposed to the grass because we struggled to keep the tiles interlocked and level... however, then we would have had to rethink how to keep all of our props upright because we utilized several wood stakes.

I sketched a rough layout so that I wouldn't have to backtrack while creating the board game the morning of our event -- this helped save a great deal of time. I also created the special candy pieces based on the inflatables and other props I had ordered -- the game can be tailored to incorporate any type of sweet treats (this is nice if you would like to ask a local bakery or candy store to help sponsor -- you can utilize their signature products). You can also (like we did) ask a local florist to inflate your balloons for you and then list them as a sponsor.

For the Candy Land sign, I downloaded a free peppermint font called "Candy Cane". I printed each letter on an individual pieces of card stock, laminated them, hole punched them and threaded them onto some red ribbon. I then hung them between two fence posts.

For the special candy spaces, I printed a special piece on the computer and used shipping tape to adhere it to one of the tiles closest to that area.

It was a lot of fun putting it together and the kids had a great time playing the game.
The best part is that everything (minus the balloons) is reusable so I boxed it up into special tubs until next time.