This is one of the guns I bought at the craft sale.

I picked-up a few marshmallow guns at our church’s craft sale at Christmas time and immediately knew I could make these. It has taken me 6 months, but I finally decided to buy the materials and put together a batch of guns. Shay is having a laser tag party for his 10th birthday and I thought these would make great “loot”. I always prefer to give away one or two bigger items as opposed to a bag of candy. (Shay would probably prefer the bag of candy, but I try to steer away from it if I can.)

Materials:

• 1/2″ white PVC pipe (15″ per gun)
• one 1/2″ Tee fitting
• two 1/2″ 90 degree angle fittings
• one end cap
• one coupling (optional)
• acetone
• spray paint (optional)
• coloured tape (optional)
• miniature marshmallows for ammunition

Instructions:

1. Clean the printing off the PVC pipe and fittings. I ended up using acetone that I had on hand. (Some suggested using very fine grit sandpaper, but I didn’t do this.) I then washed all of the fittings and the long pipe with hot soapy water.
2. Cut the long tube of PVC. I used our mitre saw and it was super quick and easy. You will need: one 6″ piece, one 3″ piece and three 2″ pieces for each gun.
3. Assemble the gun by following the diagram. I did not glue the pieces together, but simply pushed the pieces together firmly.
4. Spray paint the guns if you wish. You can personalize or embellish the guns with coloured tape or leave them plain.

This project was very simple to make. The cost was approximately $4.35 per gun, but I had the spray paint on hand. If we weren’t going to a Laser Tag facility and were having a home party, I might have given the pieces for the gun, put out some coloured tape and had the boys build and personalize their own gun at the party.  However, for Shay’s birthday, we are simply giving a completed gun and “ammunition” as loot.

Here are 6/10 of the guns….the rest are still drying.

Wash all of the PVC pieces.

Cut the pieces to the specified lengths.

Assemble according to this diagram.

Assembled gun

Here are the 10 guns I made.

To use the gun, place a miniature marshmallow just inside the open end of the top piece where the “coupling” goes (if you use one ~ it isn’t necessary according to other instructions I saw).  Place your mouth over the end and blow a quick hard breath into the tube. The marshmallow will shoot with a surprising amount of speed and force. Although marshmallows are soft and relatively harmless, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for an eye injury. If giving them as gifts, you might want to get some goggles to go with the gun. (These would also make great stocking stuffers at Christmas time.)