I am a committed miser. Well, not in every way, but I am committed to exploring as many ways to become a miser as I possibly can, no matter how much it costs me to get there! So my latest engineering project asks this question: what is the cheapest, most efficient way to temporarily attach game pieces and paper doll pieces to a play board? This is so important because modern mothers don’t want pieces sliding around, but gluing game pieces to our file folder games, etc., is just silly. We need something in between. My quest is finally at an end, for now. Because this fix is not perfect, it’s just amazingly close to perfect.
1. Magnates: These seem like an obvious choice. After all, you magnetically attach paper to refrigerators, so why not use 2 magnates to stick laminated papers together in this case? It’s not a bad choice, but it’s not a perfect choice. If the game base is black, or has minimal pictures, this might work. One solution, when there are many pictures, is magnetic tape sandwiched between the picture and the file folder or between two pieces of paper to hide it. The main issue with this method is that unless you are using a very strong, expensive magnetic tape, it is just not strong enough to do the job unless the game is played quietly at a table, every time it is played. Long ago I learned that a life at a table is dull and lame, and so I need something stronger that can be used in the car, at the park, in a doctor’s office, jostled by several kids, and the game pieces won’t move. I needed something else.
* Of course, if your game is to be played on a cookie sheet or other magnetic surface, then magnetic tape is the cheapest way to go. Laminate your printed objects, use double-sided tape to stick to the magnetic tape (the adhesive on the magnate is generally weak and lame, so you need extra support), and stick the magnate to the back!)
2. “Restickable dots: These babies are awesome. They are about as amazing as they come. They are just SO STICKY! Furthermore, adhering them to the back of your game objects is a challenging. I used double-sided tape and cut a tiny bit of the dot for each game piece. This works, but it’s tiresome to assemble, and it doesn’t look very neat and clean. And it’s SO sticky. The sticky is tolerable because it’s not adhesive, it’s just, well, a sticky dot. The dot eventually gets a little dirty, and then it’s not as sticky, but when it loses it’s sticky, you are supposed to rinse it in water. This becomes a problem quickly when you are talking about washing a laminated piece of paper just to rinse the sticky dot on the back. More mess and trouble than its worth. There must be a better way.
3. Velcro: Velcro is very much like magnates in it’s usability. It works well when you don’t have a picture on your game board, but when you do, you suddenly end up with Velcro ruining the aesthetics of the picture, or covering the picture completely. It also makes the game pieces very bulky. Boooooo! Velcro is pretty awesome, though, because it is CHEAP when you buy it on a roll, and it sticks nicely to laminated sheets, and really to anything you want it stuck to. It is perfect for classroom calendars with the date pieces you re-arrange each month, but only adequate for file folders/paper dolls/etc.
4. Felt and flannel: These media are nice for paper dolls, certainly. So easy to use, as well. You just buy some ink jet printable fabric transfers, print your pictures, iron them onto your felt sheet, and cut them out. Nice and neat. I have made flannel file folders, but they just get bulky. Felt is much better for use with felt boards and “paper dolls,” but it will work with a file folder game.
I REALLY wanted something more streamlined. I wanted something I could stick to the backs of the game pieces. What I really wanted was something like static cling, but finding affordable static cling is like finding the lost city of Atlantis. It just doesn’t exist at under $1 per sheet. No miser will pay that! I started looking around the house for something that might act as static cling. The kid’s broken swim cap? Nope, not sticky enough. Plastic table cloth sheeting? Nope, not sticky enough. No-skid throw rug backing? Nope, too bulky, and not sticky enough. Rubber washers? Oh, now I was just getting desperate and silly. No, none of these worked. And then I got distracted by my Little Magpie, so sad because her huge, cheap Walmart bouncie ball had popped. Yes, the ones you find in those huge cages and wish you’d had as a kid, but hope nobody every buys for your kids. Yup, the ones that cost a whopping $2.50 and deflate after a few weeks. Absolutely, the ones you can’t WAIT to find outside so you can sneak them into the trash before your kids notice. That bouncie ball. But this was different. This one had popped, exposing the inside of the ball. The sticky, shiny, STATIC CLING INSIDE OF THE FREAKING BOUNCIE BALL!!! I would have shouted a naughty word in glee, had my mother not been standing right there, and one never shouts such words in front of mothers or nice church ladies. 🙂
5. The inside of a huge, cheap, stupid, caged bouncie ball from Walmart. Her’s what you do. Print your work on regular paper, not card stock, and laminate it. You can use card stock, but it works far nicer with the the flexibility of paper. Cut out your paper shapes. Cover entirely the back of your paper shape with double-backed tape. Stick the piece to the outer side of a popped bouncie ball. Cut around the shape. Stick your shape to stuff.
HADES YEAH!!!!!! My soul is over joyed.
This is what descendants of engineers stress about in the wee hours of the morning. Now I can sleep well…until the next engineering problem arises!
All parts, cut out, unassembled
Double sided tape. I have a major crush on double-sided tape. MWWAAAAAA!
- That’s double-sided tape on the back of one of my game pieces.
There’s the game piece stuck to the outside of a piece of purple bouncie ball.
My Honey Bee clippers. There’s no better scissors for tiny cutting. Maybe these are my craft crush. Life would be meaningless without them!
Group picture!!!!!
Final product! See how you can move the piece around so darn easily, and it temporarily sticks to smooth surfaces. This is the best trash to treasure idea I’ve ever had, if I do say so myself.
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