This super simple beach-comber craft using driftwood and pebbles is a perfect summer holiday craft, winter beach walk activity or Father’s Day Gift. 

Driftwood sticks bound with string to make a noughts and crosses board, with painted pebbles as playing pieces.

We spend a lot of time on Chesil Beach in Dorset and it is a brilliant place for driftwood and pebble collectors like us.

The driftwood we find is bleached and smooth and comes in all shapes and sizes. We wonder where it came from and how far it has travelled to reach us and we plan what we will do with it once we get it home.

This driftwood craft uses some of the pebbles we have amassed, results in a game we can play together and is pretty to look at to boot!

How To Make Driftwood Noughts and Crosses (Tic Tac Toe)

You will need:

4 driftwood sticks

10 pebbles, roughly the same size

String

Acrylic paint in brown and black

Driftwood sticks, pebbles and twine.

  • Lay your sticks out to form a grid
  • Bind them together with string, knot them underneath and trim

A driftwood grid for noughts and crosses, held together with twine.

 

  • Paint five of your pebbles with noughts and five with crosses (pencil mark them first if you’re a wobbly freehander)
  • Let them dry
  • Play!

Wouldn’t it make for a fabulous Father’s Day outing? A stride along the beach to see what you can find, blow away the cobwebs, tire everybody out then home for some crafting and a belly full of food! Finish the day off with a family noughts and crosses marathon – perfect!  

 

Playing noughts and crosses with driftwood and pebbles.

 

Swaps and Alternatives

  • Make it really beach-themed and paint starfish on one set of pebbles and octopuses on the other. Or pirate gold and parrots. Or mermaids and fish!
  • Use shells instead of pebbles.
  • Go mad and make seaside-themed chess pieces and a chess board or keep it simple with Snakes and Ladders (you could use seaweed for the snakes!)

Now, what shall we make with this piece?!

Young man on the beach holding an enormous driftwood log.

DIY Noughts and Crosses

A homemade game of noughts and crosses made with driftwood and pebbles.

A super simple beach craft using driftwood and pebbles to make a noughts and crosses game you can play! This makes a super easy Father's Day gift.

Materials

  • 4 driftwood sticks
  • 10 pebbles, roughly the same size
  • String
  • Acrylic paint in brown and black (or sharpies)

Instructions

  1. Lay your sticks out to form a 3x3 grid
  2. Bind them together with string, knot them underneath and trim off the excess string
  3. Paint five of your pebbles with noughts and five with crosses (pencil mark them first if you’re a wobbly freehander or use a sharpy instead)
  4. Let them dry
  5. Play!

 

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