Aaarrrgh Matey! Cannonball Beanbags

I have been planning my son's upcoming birthday party lately. Been a bit obsessed with it really. For a while I was afraid that I was going to be planning a Thomas Party, but fortunately for me, he changed his mind to Pirates (thank goodness for the eye patch he found lying on the floor of the garage!)

There are a plethora of pirate party ideas out there. My goal has been to create the coolest pirate party while spending the least amount of money (cause lets face it, if you look at many of the pirate parties posted on the web, it is very apparent that a good-sized fortune was spent on them). Since I have more time than desire to take out a second mortgage, and a craft room stuffed with all sorts of scraps and odds and ends that I have hoarded (I blame genetics), I figured this was a good time to be a little more creative and use of some of it.

One of the activities I have planned is a Sink the Pirate Ship bean bag toss. So of course I needed some beanbags. And what better beanbag to sink a pirate ship than cannonballs.

For fuses, I started by knotting together some red rope I had with some leftover silver ric rac. After I had a nice row tied, I cut them off just below the knot (being careful not to cut it close enough that it would come undone).

 Next, I cut out a circle from felt (I used the top of a spool of thread for my measurement). I cut a small hole in center of my felt and poked one fuse through each.

 Using some scraps of black fabric (I think this was leftover from a black sheet), I cut out large circles. I used my small plates for the template. Mine have a diameter of about 7 3/4".

 I hand stitched around the outer edge, and pulled the string up to form a little bag.

 Now you know my secret- I forgot I had tons of beans and used rice instead. Each of my cannonballs took 1/2 cup. 

 After filling, I cinched the bag closed and tied it. Next I hot glued my fuses into the center. It worked out perfectly- I could wedge my fat knot into the very center so that it wasn't poking up and hot glued them enough that they should be able to stand up to the abuse of being used by five year-olds.

Now I have some good, proper cannonballs for my little pirate.