county fair dime toss game!

it's SUMMER and time to party!
and quite by accident, i just created a HIT of a party game...

when our fabulous girl camping group the Lemon Drop Divas plan an event,

we go ALL OUT. WAY over the limit. everything is themed, with coordinated decor.

a campout in May was themed 'Lemon Drop Divas County Fair'

and it was packed with references to old time fairs. 

including a midway. yep!

we were all given the opportunity to create a 'carnival games' booth

as part of our own fair midway, to enjoy with our friends.

i was stumped... until i was sorting through a bunch of stuff we had here at home

and realized 'we have a LOT of wine glasses that we don't use!'

and when that thought combined with the carnival game concept,

i had a light bulb moment.

continue reading to see how easy it is to set something like this up!

when i was a kid, i had a few favorite games at the county fair:

i was a WHIZ at the 'fill the balloon with water from a squirt gun' game!

i loved the horse racing game where you cranked a handle to make your horse run faster,

and could win metal horse statues - but i never won one.

i sucked at the 'toss a ring onto a bottle' and 'hit the clown with the softball' games.

and my Mom would never let me play the 'ping pong ball goldfish' game

(once i became a Mom, i knew why!!!)

but baby, when it came to the 'toss a dime and win a dish' game, 

i went home with a handful of dishes EVERY time!

(wait - THIS explains my dish obsession! LOL)

this is how those game booths looked back then:

do you remember those?!
as i was looking at our plethora of wine glasses,

i thought about how much i loved those dime toss games from the past - 

and decided to create a 'dime toss for wine glasses' booth!

when i let the Divas know what my game would be in our online group,

the girls went CRAZY! a few even dropped off glasses for me to give away!

here's how it all came together:

because this was needed on a camping trip (about an hour from home, but still)

it meant that i had to haul alla' the components of the booth with me -

along with everything else we needed for a five day stay at the campground.

so i needed to find elements that were collapsible, compact, and lightweight.

we have two low 'picnic' tables that are slatted and roll up, like this:

[ made by Costway, available on Google Shopping - not an ad ] 

because they roll up and pop into a canvas carry bag, they were easy to transport.

long ago, my Dad made new taller legs for one of the tables -
so i had a low one, and a taller one.

i sat them up and zip-tied them together with the taller table in the back,

then covered them both with a cute yellow polka-dot plastic tablecloth from Daiso

so that the dimes wouldn't slip through the table slats.

behind them, i zip-tied two tall wood posts (2" X 6' tall) to the back legs of the back table.

(i also zip-tied the tops of those posts to the frame of the pop-up for stability.)

 i painted a sign on poster board and taped it to the upright posts,

 adorned with two bright yellow 'award ribbons' that i made.

with the structure sturdy and secure, i began adding the glassware...

in these detail shots of how i set up the glasses, you can see

a few yellow metal rounds and plastic plates

that allowed me to build some levels into the display.

they added to the color scheme - along with some plastic lemons,

because yellow is EVERYTHING to the Lemon Drop Divas! so are lemons!

 the levels ALSO make it a bit harder to get the coins where you want them.

some glasses are upside down, and some of those have another glass on top of them.
some glasses support the plates for higher levels.

there are vintage wine glasses and dessert glasses and champagne coupes,

(a few of which caused the dimes to slide right OUT the other side!)

and new super-huge wine glasses that we were gifted but never used -

ditto for the melamine dishes with trailers on them

and the Hilo Hattie's Hawaiian coffee mugs.

the glasses and mugs with lemons on them came from Dollar Tree

because they fit the theme!

i also made a few yellow buntings to further decorate the booth:

yes, i always dress to fit the theme ;) 
I didn't get a shot of it, but i placed a yellow yardstick on the ground

about three feet in front of the front table edge - 
players had to 'stay behind the yellow line' just like at Disneyland!

once the booths were all set up, the fun began...

we had 100 women in 75 trailers at this event, and over 75 of them came to our booth!

we saw some very skillful methods of dime tossing - 

including a gal who held her dollar's worth of dimes in one hand
and then tossed them all at once - she won three pieces!

there were squeals of delight, sighs of disappointment, and loads of fun.

we all cheered each other on, made a lot of noise, and 

even the staff members of the campground came and played!

the other booths included a ping pong ball toss, a ring toss,

a 'fishing' game, lawn darts, and many tasty treats - 

and a corn dog food truck showed up to feed us lunch!

so.... the reason i am sharing this idea is because i can just imagine it

translated into a red, white, and blue theme for the Fourth of July!

add in some flags, bunting, and balloons for a festive touch

at your backyard bbq, block party, or other holiday gathering.

 you don't have to use glass - use plastic dishes and cups!

use what you have, or head to thrift & dollar stores.

and it doesn't have to be a dime toss - use pennies!

making these fun 'award ribbons' was easy - 

i'll be sharing them in a post soon!

i'm working on a post to show you some of the darling trailers & decor,
including mine... but in the meantime,
wanna' know more about the Lemon Drop Divas?
click here to view the website and membership info!

shared online:

funky junk interiors | new upcycled projects to make #630

creatively beth | creative crafts linky party #96

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