The Cow Queen: Marble Run on the Cheap

Marble Run on the Cheap

Before we get to the matter at hand. I just had to share some of my excitement with you. If you have been following me very long -- well, you couldn't have been for too long -- I've only been at this gig for about 7 weeks. So, if you've been reading some of my Friday posts, you'll see that I link up to other blogs that are hosting blog parties. Well, Rachelle at the Feature Yourself Friday party contacted me last night. She FEATURED ME on her blog today. O.K., so maybe it is not a FEATURE FEATURE, but she mentioned me and used one of my pictures. I'll take that for now! If you're curious, jump over there to see.

Now, on to what you came for ...
The prince has always loved marble runs. You know the little pieces of wood with grooves so the marble will roll down to the next piece and keep going until it reaches the bottom.

Now, being the tightwad that I am, I couldn't see shelling out the big bucks for the fancy schmancy store-bought ones AND ... I thought about all those little pieces scattered on the floor. Well, I held out and never bought one.

My patience (and stinginess) paid off when I found an idea for how to MAKE ONE very cheaply. Here is what you need:

toilet paper roller and/or paper towel rollers, magnet strips, and tape or other decorative materials (if you so choose)

The first thing to do is decorate your tubes. You can use colored tape, markers, stickers ... whatever cranks your tractor. If you are using the rolled magnets like I did, you might want to unroll them and let them relax before the next step.

Cut the magnet strips to the length of the tubes and peel the back off .

Smoosh (it's a technical term!) the sticky side of the magnet against tubes.

When you have all the tubes complete, place the magnetic edge against a metal object. (Our refrigerator was full, so we used the inside of the front door.) Arrange them so the marble can roll down from one tube to the next. We also had a tissue box at the bottom of the run to try to "catch" the marble.

I'm loving my cheap marble run so much that I am linking it to I'm Lovin' It, Feature Yourself Friday, and Friday Favorites. Click over to them to see what other people are doing.

The grass is green. It's good to be The Cow Queen.