Mini Bowling Alley, Completely Collapsible

This is a small bowling alley made out of common household materials. It fits inside two Altoids cans and is pretty simple to make. It takes some time =, just to make things look good, but it should be able to be finished in less than two hours. Everything is fairly inexpensive, it shouldn't cost more than 15$, unless you have to buy everything, then it'll come out to more like 20-25$.

Step 1: Materials

You will need:

Glue (fast drying is nice, but not necessary, hot glue would work too)
Two altoid cans (can be put in any kind of box)
Pins, flat head would be easiest to work with, but not necessary)
Paint, any color for the bowling ball, and red and white for the pins
Paint brushes
Marker, permanent, orange and black, to make arrows and dots
Clay, something that dries, I used air drying clay, it worked well
Popsicle sticks (I only had the big ones, so I cut them in half, but the smaller ones would work best)
Shiny paper, (to make it look like shiny wood)
Color printer (you could color it too, but the ink makes it look nice)
Marble
Cardboard

Step 2: Making the Alley

I used a shiny photo paper for this, a color printer, some card board from a heavy cereal box (you need to have card board that is thicker than a single piece of think card stock), a paper cutter, an orange and black marker, and 7 pins (like for sewing)

This is the link to the picture of the wood texture I used:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8AF-B7LNCsQW9uaycyG62LXkBGAx3r1Z2hydiA1EkI4fae_0i

And this is another one that looks really nice:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2p9G2Iexc4-ZHeDaE2mBP-6pb6jQ3DcM25ywrqFP5mmqIZUyh6w

So, on Word, or OneNote you copy and paste replicas of these images together to form a single long picture that should take up the page from margin to margin, standard.

Then you cut out the paper in rectangles that are 3 inches by 2.1 inches. Do this three times.

Then take your cardboard and cut it into three rectangles that are 2.9 inches by 2 inches and glue them onto the cut paper. I made the inside cardboard a little smaller, but it isn't necessary, I don't think. Having them be the same size might actually be better.

I put little pieces of cardboard on the bottom of the original cardboard, to make it prop up on the table, I don't know really know why, but it looks nice.

Then mark a pyramid of 3 then 2 then 1 dots on one of the three rectangles, these will mark the place where your pins should go. If you want ten pins, try to see if they will fit before you mark them on the paper permanently. On the opposite side of the dots, glue two pins into the curvy part of the cardboard, so they stick out about 1.4 centimeters.

On a second piece of cardboard, draw arrows which line up to the pins on the other piece of floor. Again, on the opposite side of the arrows, glue two pins into the curvy part of the cardboard, so they stick out about 1.4 centimeters.

Step 3: Pins and Ball

I made the pins with air dry clay. I found the easiest way to get a pin shape, it to get a block of clay and cut it into 6 (or 10 if you like) pieces, all of equal size, my pieces were about 2 centimeters long, but I cut them back to the size I wanted, so whatever size you want the pins to be should be fine as long as they fit inside the tin. I painted the pins with fabric paint, and it turned out really nice, shiny. But be careful to not paint the ball and the pins with the fabric dye with fabric paint because they with stick to each other. The red lines across the neck and lower part of the pin should be made after the white clay has dried.

The bowling ball is made out of clay wrapped around a marble, to give it weight. But it could be made out of anything really. Once the clay has be wrapped around the marble, rub it around your hands until it rounds out. Then make impressions into the clay for the finger and thumb holes. Then paint.

Step 4: Bumpers

Bumpers need glue, popsicle sticks, and pins.

Cut the popsicle sticks about 2.9 inches long and glue the pins in an L-shape onto the wood.

Cut the pins so they reach only about halfway across the board.

Use a sharp pin to make a hole for the dull ones, it may be useful to mark which bumper goes with which holes.

Step 5: Score Cards

Score card are meant to be available to keep score.

You need a toothpick, some card stock, paper, and glue.

I out a square that was 1 inch long and made multiple copies, glue those down at the top or side onto another piece of paper and let dry. To create a small booklet.

With a piece of cardstock cut out a square that is about 1.1 inches long, and glue the last page of the small booklet on to the square cardstock.

Glue the toothpick to the back of the cardstock at an angle, so it could be written on easily by a tiny person.

On the bottom of the tooth pick glue a piece of card stock to create a base, or stick the tooth pick into a thick piece of card board.