Bean Bags, Barley Bags, Whatever

As I mentioned before, I made some little rice bags for Noah and Tobin to play with. They have been having a blast tossing them into bowls, playing catch, making roads for their toy cars and using them as pillows for their stuffed animals. Seeing so much creative play from such a simple project made me decide to make some bean bags for a two year old we know who is having a birthday party this Saturday.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out and I'm excited about how easy, fun and frugal they were to make. Here's what I did:

First I found an old tin with a handle at our local thrift store. It cost 75 cents. I used double stick tape to adhere some cute scrapbook paper that I already had to the outside.

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I used colorful letter stickers ($2.99 at Target) on a large cream colored label and stuck the whole thing to the front of the paper covered tin.

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After that I sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge.

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While the tin was drying I sewed up 4" by 4" fabric squares on three sides to make small pouches. Then I filled them with 1/2 cup of pearl barley. It cost 48 cents a pound in the bulk section of Winco. Much cheaper, and also lighter and softer than beans.

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Once the pouches were full I folded the tops in and stitched across the top making sure to back-stitch on each corner to ensure that no barley would escape.
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I made a little card with ideas on how to play with the bean bags,

but I'm sure Hope will invent many more games on her own.

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Then I threw everything in the tin bucket.

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Then I took it all back out again to take a cuter picture. I hope she likes it!