Amazing Match Chain Reaction

Step 1: Gathering Materials

Gathering materials for this project is a bit of a guessing when it comes to how many matches you will need.

What you would definitely need would be:

1/4" in foam core - the foam core will burn after the matches burn, you could use wood if you want to attempt this multiple times!

Paper - you can either print your design or sketch it out.

Printer - we found it easier to use a vector program to print out our design, and for guessing how many matches we needed.

Scissors - this is to cut out our stencil for placement of the matches.

Adhesive - we found a hot glue held the matches in place quickly - Note* we tried craft glue but it would take to long to dry.

Matches - lots of matches are needed - Note* using a vector program gave us an idea of how many we needed.

For this project, we cut out a square 12" in x 12" in square out of the foam core and used approximately 1500 matches!

Step 2: Prepping the Foundation

After deciding what kind of design you want to make out of matches, go ahead and start cutting out your stencil. We used a vector program and since we can only print 8.5" x 11" we tiled the design to fit four pages and made the stencil about half an inch smaller in height to fit the foam core square.

This process helped with knowing how matches we needed and the placement of the matches.

Step 3: Starting the Process

Go ahead and glue down your stencil. Gather all of your matches and place them in a pile. You will definitely run through them quickly. Plug in your hot glue gun and start placing your matches down on the foam core.

Note* - remove any matches that are defected like having a small match head or having a skinny wood piece.

Matches don't need to have a ton of glue to stay down. We did add glue once we had a section down for reinforcement.

Step 4: Get Ready to Light It Up

After all your hard work and patience, its time to find an outdoor spot to place your creation. Our design took about 15 minutes from the first spark to the last. Note* - The flame does get high, but if you have a video camera to get close ups you will get to see some amazing beautiful footage! We used 1500 matches, now we are wondering what would happen if we doubled or tripled the size.

Try it on a cool night to get some warmth and entertain your friends and family!