Cantina sent in this idea, along with instructions and pictures. This is a great homemade gift for kids!
Our middle child loves to build and he is great with a hammer. With a little help he is making geo-boards this year.
We had a scrap piece of lumber that he spray painted (picture above is the first one we did and it wasn’t painted). Then we use graph paper to hammer in nails in 2 inch squares. Don’t nail them all the way down. Then with colored rubber bands you can make all kind of fun shapes. My children have had the best time with this board and Elijah is now making a few for Christmas presents. The nails cost $1.97 per pack and the rubber bands were $.97 a pack. Since we had the scrap lumber and spray paint these will cost us under $5 per board.
Thank you, Cantina! I think I will put my 12 year old on this project. What a fun idea!
I can help you lower the cost even more. Each month we take our kids to the Home Depot Kids Workshop. Each kit comes with a couple extra nails in case one gets bent during the building process. I save the extras from our kits, and even pick up extras that others leave on the table when they are done and save them for projects at home. I actually have a pretty good selection of nails in different lengths and gauges.