Losing Your Marbles?

Corporate life can be busy. We can get swept up in the stress of projects, deadlines and events and sometimes, just sometimes, we feel like we are quite literally losing our marbles.

Now, when our sales team attend events, we like to bring a little token for our friends in the corporate world to remember us by, but keep cups and notebooks just didn’t seem to have the impact we wanted. They are nice to throw in the bag, but they are quickly forgotten and rarely used. We wanted to share something that was sustainable, meaningful and provided a little escape, even just for five minutes in someones day. Then we remembered marbles. They are a little nostalgic, they last (almost) forever, they can be passed on to children and most importantly, they give you an alternative way to relax after a hard day, and if you live with someone, maybe they can even join in the fun and help you make some nice memories.

We hope you enjoy this gift as much as we enjoyed the process of bringing them to life.

Without further ado, here are 5 games to play with your new set of marbles.

1. Classic Marbles

Play with others

Create a large circle on the floor – use chalk on concrete, or even use a stick to draw in the dirt (think super retro). Each player chooses marbles to place in the circle (Try to keep the same colour or texture to make it easier to remember which ones are yours). Then take a larger marble (if you have one) or a regular marble and standing at the edge of the circle, flick your shooter marble with your finger taking turns trying to knock your opponents marbles out of the circle. Any marble that you knock out is counted as a point. The game ends when there are no more marbles and the person who collected the most points wins! If you have more players and are running short on marbles, you can use conkers in the middle instead of marbles and use a marble each to knock the conkers out of the circle, just make sure you write your initials on the conkers with a sharpie before you start.

2. Long Marbles

Play by self or with others

Place a marble (the goal) a few feet away from you on a flat surface. Then standing a few feet away, roll the rest of the marbles one by one towards the goal. The aim is to get as many marbles as close as possible to the goal… but here’s the catch… the marbles can’t touch the goal – it’s tougher than it sounds!

 

3. Marble Toss

Play by self or with others

If you ever played cups or hoops, you will be a dab hand at this game. The objective is to get as many marbles as possible into a ‘basket’. You can use a paper cup, cardboard box or a bucket. try placing the basket farther away from you to make the game a little more difficult. Just remember – marbles are hard and they may shatter or damage glass or other fragile objects so best to play this game outdoors.

 

4. Marble Put Put

Play by self or with others

If you have children, nieces or nephews, that are guaranteed to love this one – think homemade ‘Mouse Trap’! Gather objects to create a marble obstacle course, create cardboard ramps, foam or sponge see-saws, boxes with holes or toilet roll tunnels. The goal is to get your marble from point A to point B, use a lollipop stick or even a hairbrush as your putter. The person with the fastest time to complete the course wins!

 

4. Bullseye

Play by self or with others

Draw circles with chalk on the pavement (or on a large sheet if you have one). Each circle should be drawn inside the other so that the centre circle is a bullseye. Assign each circle a number of points. Standing a foot or two back from the circles (use lego as a place-marker so that everyone is equal), each player has three turns to shoot a marble into the circle aiming for the bullseye. Keep a tally and the person with the most points at the end of the game wins – if you are playing by yourself, try to beat your personal best, or pick a number and try to tally it up in as few throws as possible.

 

Important: Please note that marbles are a potential choking hazard for small children, always supervise kids playing with marbles and ensure that they are stored out of reach of children. Marbles are a slipping hazard. Always count and tidy them away in their storage tin after use.