Upcycle a shoebox into a homemade foosball game!

It’s World Cup time, so it’s a great time to make this soccer craft.

Build a shoebox foosball game

In the interest of keeping things simple and creating a game that the younger boys could actually play (ages 5 and 7), we decided to make it one-on-one soccer.  It would be fun to use a larger box and add more rows of players!

DIY Shoebox Foosball Game

Here’s what you need to build one:

Build a shoebox foosball game

  • A shoebox
  • Two cardboard tubes from a dry cleaner type pants hanger
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Utility Knife
  • Paper
  • Cardboard – from a cereal box
  • Scissors
  • Colored pencils/markers
  • Duct tape
  • Ping Pong Ball

Note:  Adult help will be needed with the utility knife.

Step 1:  Take the cardboard rods off of your clothes hangers.

Step 2:  Use a utility knife to make holes in the side of the shoebox to fit your cardboard rods.  We made our holes 3 inches from the bottom of the box and 3 inches from the end of the box.  You may need to adjust this based on the size of your box.

Build a shoebox foosball game

At first, we put the rod a little too close to the edge of the box, and then the player would get stuck or hit the end of the box.  (Note the extra holes on the side of the box!)

Step 3:  Make the goals by cutting a hole in each end of the box.  Make sure that the ping pong ball can fit through easily.

Step 4: Cut rectangles from cereal box cardboard to be the players. Aidan drew some soccer players on paper and colored them in.

Build a shoebox foosball game

Step 5:  Decorate the outside of the box with duct tape.  Or just leave it plain and start playing!

Build a shoebox foosball game

GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!

Build a shoebox foosball game

8 Comments

Post a Comment
  1. Almost Unschoolers Jun 29, 2014

    This is terrific!

    Reply
  2. Barb @ A Life in Balance Jun 30, 2014

    I love this! I shared it with my readers on my Facebook page.

    Reply
  3. Courtney@BooksnBoys Jun 30, 2014

    My five and seven year old will really love this today :) Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Marcia Jun 30, 2014

    Wonderful idea. My 2 boys will love this.

    Reply
  5. Kate - The Craft Train Jul 1, 2014

    This is an awesome idea, love it! About to share on my FB page.

    Reply
  6. Mark May 30, 2017

    Great I need to show this project to my boys

    Reply
  7. Fred Oct 7, 2017

    God bless, do you know any way of making something for four people? :)

    Reply
  8. susi Apr 18, 2018

    Would you be interested in selling me a non- exclusive license to use your home made foosball images above. it's for a one year online short film.

    Many thanks,
    Susi

    Reply

Post a Comment