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Stacked silly face tin cans in a pyramid shape with a red and green ball and a bean bag.
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DIY Carnival Game Bean Bag Toss

A DIY Carnival Game Bean Bag Toss uses tin cans as the target. Have a mini carnival or fall festival in your own backyard!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time2 hours 30 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Art Project
Cuisine: Art Project
Keyword: backyard carnival games, bean bag toss game, carnival game bean bag toss, fair games, fall festival games
Author: Shelly
Cost: $1

Equipment

  • Smooth edge can opener
  • Bean Bags or soft balls to throw

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Collect the number of cans needed to stack into a pyramid shape. Collect 6, 10 or 15 cans (more cans make a larger pyramid). Take off the lids and wash the cans well.
  • Cut strips of paper to cover the cans. I’ve made a DIY Carnival Game Free Pattern for Tin Cans if you would like to make this task easier. Copy the pattern, cut it out and then draw it onto white copy paper or colored copy paper. More than one will fit on a 8.5x11-inch sheet of paper. 
  • Decorate the strips however you would like. I used colored copy paper and drew emoji faces with a black marker but there are options for every occasion. You could make jack-o-lanterns, snowmen, numbers, party theme pictures, numbers, flowers, etc.
  • If you want to use bean bags you may already have some from another yard game. That would be easy. Or you can purchase the bean bags if you would like. If not, there are a couple options for making them.
  • First, you can sew them from two 4.5x4.5-inch pieces of heavy fabric. Place the two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew a ½-inch seam on three edges and part of the fourth edge. Turn it inside out and fill with beans (or rice). Then sew the opening shut. Make 3-4 of them.
    A second option uses socks. Take a sock and add beans (or rice) into the toe. Tie it off tightly with string and pull the extra part of the sock back over the bag.
  • A third option is to use a soft ball to throw.
  • Stack your cans up into a pyramid on a small table, put on your top hat and call people in to play your game. Make a line that the participant must stay behind to toss the bean bags. They receive one point for each can that is knocked off the table.
  • Prizes are optional but fun- snack candy bars or fruit snacks would work well.