How to Create A Family Ring Toss Game

Award-winning interior stylist, writer and influencer Melanie Lissack shows us how to use old bottles to create a family ring toss game for hours of entertainment this summer.

Materials and tools for garden ring toss game:

Prep:

• Bucket
• Jeyes Fluid
• Sponge, cloth or stiff brush

Bottles:

• 6 empty glass bottles
• Basket or apple crate to hold the bottles
• White PVA Bond glue
• Mixing pot
• Stirring spoon or brush
• Funnel
• All surface paint in multiple colours
• Artist’s paint brushes
• POSCA pens

Creating the rings

• Hemp rope 11mm thick & 25ft long
• Scissors
• Exterior tape

How to make a garden ring toss game:

1. Use a measuring jug, pour 5000ml of water and 250ml of Jeyes Fluid into a bucket. The Jeyes heritage tin has been replaced, so look out for its new recyclable plastic bottle.
2. Wear some rubber gloves for protection. Dip a cloth, sponge or stiff brush inside the solution and use it on the inside and outside of the glass bottles. Then rinse the bottles and allow to completely dry.
3. Mix a 90/10 ratio of glue (90) and all surface paint (10) colour of your choice in a mixing pot. Use half a teacup of white glue. Alternatively, you can use an old washed out yoghurt pot. We wanted to create fruit-themed bottles so we used several colourful paints (strawberry is red, green and black; kiwi is green, white and black; pineapple is yellow and green).
4. Create six bottles, so you have two of each fruit. For each “fruit”, pour the specific mixture inside of the bottles using a funnel.
5. Twist the bottle upside down and turn until the paint covers all the inside of the bottle.
6. Discard any leftover paint from inside the bottle and leave to dry. You need to keep twisting the bottles so that the paint dries and covers the inside of the bottle completely
7. Paint the detailed parts of each design (such as the top of the leaves of the strawberries, kiwi seeds etc) on the outside of the bottle using artist’s paint brushes and POSCA pens. 
8. Place all of the decorated glasses into the apple crate.
9. Cut hemp rope to 30cm in length and join the ends with a strong, durable exterior tape.
10. If desired, decorate the tape and apple crate with POSCA pens, paint or vinyl stickers.

Photograph courtesy of Jeyes Fluid.

How to play

1. Mark a line 3-6 feet away from the crate for the players to stand behind
2. Give each player four rings and have them stand behind the line.
3. Take turns tossing the rings onto the top of the bottles. The player who rings the most bottles wins! Or why not give each bottle a different “points” score, and add up the total score per turn?

Now all you need to do is gather the family and get playing!

Also take a look at our Easy Jam Jar Craft Ideas!