Fabric Tic Tac Toe Travel game

In a few short months we are going to set sail with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and most importantly, Snow White and Cinderella.  So, I have been brainstorming small, inexpensive things to take along with us because in order to sail with Mickey, we must drive, fly and then drive again to get to him! 

For Valentine's Day Peighton is getting a rolling backpack from Pottery Barn Kids so she can tote all of her own treasures easily!

Today, I came up with a travel tic tac toe game to put in her back pack.  It was pretty easy, and took me about 45 minutes to complete.

Here's what I did:

I cut 2 6" x 6" squares for the board. 
On top of one of them I added 4 skinny strips for the grid. 
I did NOT finish the edges of the polka dot fabric.  I like frayed edges and it was a lot faster.  You certainly could iron the long edges and then sew them down. I just sewed them down. ;-)

Then I added velcro to all of the small squares.  Since mine is for the short-legger crowd I wanted to make it easy to play.  Added bonus of the velcro-easy to store too!!!!!
(I sewed one extra piece of velcro to the back of the game board since there will be one piece that does not fit on the game board.)

After the velcro was added, I put right sides together and stitched around the edges leaving a small hole to turn it right side out.  Then I top stitched the edges to finish it off.

Since my game is for Valentine's day I chose to do two different colors of hearts for the game pieces.  And quite honestly, I didn't want to make X's and O'S!  I cut out 20 hearts, a front and a back for each heart.  I made 5 of each color (the extra one goes on the back).
They each got a piece of velcro stitched on and it's done!

I love that it is small, lightweight, and easy for little fingers to play.  And all the pieces are contained within itself-LOVE that.
I think this would also make a great game to put in my "restaurant bag" after we get back from our cruise.  Whenever we dine out, I take along a bag of small things to entertain us while we wait for our food and the natives get restless.  This will be a great addition!