How to Make a Cactus Slingshot Toy

I don’t know what the deal is, but suddenly my kid thinks he’s an action hero. He’s jumping, kicking, blasting things with pretend blasters, throwing fake punches, and saving the day around every corner of our house. We’re not too big on giving him weapons as toys, even though it’s his fondest desire to have a Nerf gun. But the other day this idea hit me for a little slingshot toy that he could aim at things, but not actually hurt things with it. So we dreamed up this cactus slingshot! I know, maybe we’re splitting hairs between guns and slingshots, but I definitely feel better about him flinging fake cactus flowers than fake bullets. 😉 Here’s how to make a cactus slingshot toy!

How to Make a Cactus Slingshot Toy

Materials

• plywood or MDF
• band saw
• cactus slingshot template (optional)
• drill
• sander
• scissors
• pencil
• craft paint
• paintbrush
• 1/2″ elastic
• yarn
• pompom maker (optional)

Make Time: 2 Hours Plus Drying Time

Step 1: Draw out your cactus on a sheet of paper. If you don’t want to draw your own, you can print and cut out our template. (Note: it’s not fancy, guys! Just a quick sketch.) Cut the cactus out and trace it onto your plywood or MDF.

Step 2: Using the band saw, cut along the traced lines. Use a drill to drill a 1/4″ hole into each arm of the cactus where the dots are.

Step 3: Sand all areas on the wood or MDF until it’s completely smooth.

Step 4: Paint the cactus as desired. We used two shades of green to create the background color and the color of the spikes.

Step 5: String about 12″ of elastic through the two holes, knotting the two ends on the other sides of the holes.

Step 6: Make your pompoms. We have a great tutorial to create those right here!

Now fling those cactus flower pompoms, baby! This thing is SO cute and SO fun, and I’m actually kind of already dreaming up other shapes or designs of slingshots. How cute would it be to make a flower that had little bee pompoms?! What other ideas could we do? xoxo