There’s a small water theme to this aswell as I made it for my friend and that’s what they requested but I won’t be talking about it. This is also my first instructable and a last minute one so I don’t have many photos at all. I am so sorry if this is way too complicated, for my future instructables I will be taking a lot more photos.

Supplies

Altoid tin (or other small container), felt, acrylic (bright colours, grey, black and red), clay (white and dark brown), small strip of cardboard, wood texture paper or very thin wood (I used a strip of balsa wood), elmers glue all or hot glue.

Step 1: Planning

I actually started by planning out the design, I drew it online (it’s a bit of a mess) so I knew what materials I would need, and then I used sharpie to mark the areas and size that I wanted each part to be. The main parts were the wall on the left, the alley, and the carpet.

Step 2: The Carpet and Alley Wood

I cut out a square of felt a bit bigger than the area I wanted it to cover, and then I used acrylic paint and drew a “bowling alley esque” design on it. You can basically come up with whatever you want, I just used some lines squiggles and dots, but I would recommend brighter colours. After that you just cut the felt into the shape you had drawn out in the tin so that it fits well. Next, I cut the wood so that it covered the parts that I marked out for the wall and alley. It’s okay if there is overlap between the carpet. This isn’t necessary at all but I didn’t like the colour of the wood so I mixed some brown acrylic paint with water and painted over it so it would be darker but still have the texted I wanted.

Step 3: The Alley (cont.)

I kept a bit of space between both wood pieces where I painted the tin black, like the gutters at an actual bowling alley. I then cut a little strip of cardboard that was the size of the alley but overlapped a bit with the carpet, and then painted it grey.

Step 4: The Wall, Pins, and Ball

For the wall, I got some dark brown clay out and then made a rectangle and pushed it into the area that I had mapped out for it so it would fit well. I put two little indents that would go on each alley side, making sure to regularly check that it fit well. For the ball, I just made a little ball out of clay and then poked some holes in it using a nail art tool. I started with a small oval type thing for the pins and then manipulated them. It takes a minute to figure out the best strategy but once you do it gets pretty easy to churn them out. All of that goes in the oven, and then I paint the ball and a red stripe on the pins.

Step 5: Assemble!

This is the easiest but probably the most fun part in my opinion. For most of this stuff I used either Elmers glue all or hot glue, in my experience they both work well it just depends on your patience level. I started with the alley wood, then added the wall, and then the carpet. After that I added the barrier and then decided where I wanted the pins and ball to be and glued them in.