DIY Cornhole Bags Game

DIY Cornhole 

I work for an non-profit organization called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, our vision is to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed, and world changers developed. The goal is simple, to share the Gospel, and to see individuals changed as a result of what Jesus has done for us. This time of year marks the return of thousands of students to campuses across the US and even across the world. I am part of a staff team at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, and we are in the thick of our NSO (New Student Outreach) season. We have many events scheduled, during which students are invited to engage with the InterVarsity community. One of the events that we host is a Picnic, we offer free food, games, and community. Notice how I said games, one of those being Bags/Cornhole (name dependent on location in the US). My supervisor, knowing I have the DIY bug, asked me to make 2 sets of Bags boards and bags for our upcoming picnic. I obliged and even jumped at the chance to make something. I made two sets, so if you only want to make one just half everything. If you want to give it a go yourself here is the how to: 

The Board Materials: 

1 - 1/2" Sheet of Plywood (Clear of knots, splits)

8 - 8' 2x4's (Clear of defects, twists, splits, etc.)

8 - 4 1/2" Carriage bolts, 3/8" in diameter

8 - 3/8" Washers

8 - 3/8" Wing Nuts

1 - Box of 2 1/2" wood screws

A regulation size set of boards has a 2' x 4' face, the back end lifts off the ground 12", and the front is supposed to be 3" off the ground. However, due to the size of the lumber, the front of my boards ended up being about 3 1/2" off the ground. 

The Process

First you need to cut your sheet of plywood in to 4 equal pieces all measuring 2' x 4'. Because the sheet starts off at 4' x 8' when you cut them, they will be a fraction smaller than regulation. For the rest I am going to list them off for your ease. 

8 Frame Sides cut at 4' 

8 Frame Top and Bottom cut at 21"

8 Legs cut to 16" (These will be cut at an angle later) 

At this point you can begin assembly with the 2 1/2" screws, the key here is to make sure the corners are square, I did so with two clamps and a scrape piece of wood, I wish I had taken a picture of it, sorry. Make sure you pre-drill your holes so the screws will sink below the surface of the wood. Once you have cut all your pieces and assembled your frames they should look like this. 

You will then need to attach the plywood to the frame. Using an adjustable square which was set to have the width of a 2 x 4 (3/4"), I marked at intervals on the plywood where I would pre-drill holes, if you have a countersink bit, I suggest using it here otherwise you will get some puckering when you try to sink your screws. Make sure you line up your sheeting on the frame, you may need to tweak the frame to fit the plywood, you want it to be as close to square as possible. Once you have the plywood attached, your board should look like this:

Next you need to cut the hole in your board which the bags are meant to be thrown through, to do this you are going to measure to the center of your board, 12" from the side, and measure 9" down from the top of your board. Once you have the center marked you will take a compass and using that center point make a circle that is 6" in diameter. Once you have your holes marked you are going to need to use a jigsaw to cut them out, before you can use the jigsaw you will need to drill a pilot hole so you can insert the jigsaw blade into the hole. Once you have cut your 6" hole you will need to smooth out the circle with some sandpaper, a rasp, or even a powered drum sander if you have one. This is what your boards should look like after this step is complete.

The next step is to attach the legs, this is a very crucial step to ensure your boards will withstand the bags being thrown on them repeatedly. First mark all of your leg pieces 1 3/4" from the side and down 1 3/4" of an inch, using your compass once again mark an arc on the board, you are doing this so the legs will be collapsable.

The center point you marked is going to be the spot you will drill your 3/8" hole for the carriage bold to fit through. Use a drill bit that is slightly larger than 3/8" so the bolt will slip in and out easily (trust me it makes your life easier). You can then use either a bandsaw or jigsaw to cut the arc, I used a bandsaw and cleaned it up with a belt sander. Your finished arc should look like this:

Next you need to mark your boards for where the legs are going to be attached, to get the correct spacing I used a scrap piece of 2x4 and used an uncut leg to mark the center point where I was going to drill the hole for the bolt in the frame. 

Now you can assemble one leg to the board so we can get the correct angle, using a carriage bolt, washer, and wing nut, the finished assembly should look like this: 

The tricky part here is getting the angle, the back of your board needs to be 12" off the ground, so what I did, although I didn't get a picture, is prop up your board with objects on a table with the leg extended in the lock position until the back of your board is 12" off the table. Then use a square and the table to scribe the line onto the leg piece. Once you have got the angle of one you can then mark the other leg pieces and cut them. Mine just happened to be cut at 45 degrees exactly. Attach your legs to your boards and the assembly is done! It only took about 4 hours to manufacture these 2 sets. The painting is what took a while, 3 days to be exact. 

Before you paint you need to fill all of the holes in your board so the throwing surface is nice and smooth and won't snag the bags as you are throwing them. Once your wood filler has cured, I painted my boards with a primer first so they would take the color paint I would apply later more easily. I went with a really simple design of a 1 3/4" stripe on the outside of the board with a solid color for the majority of the board, then hand painted lettering to advertise for InterVarsity. Because I'm sure you guys know how to paint I won't patronize you, but I will share some photos! 

The lettering alone took me about 3 hours, with my face about 6" away from the work surface and a paintbrush with 4 hairs! There you have it, that's how to build the boards!

The Bag Materials

8 - 7"x 7" Duck Cloth (One color, Mine were Blue)

8 - 7"x 7" Duck Cloth (One color, and Yellow)

Thread of same color as fabric

Feed grade whole kernel corn (16 lbs)

It's important that you get duck cloth, this material is very sturdy and will withstand the abuse the bags are going to need to take. If you pick up a half a yard of each color you need that should be plenty. 

The Process

Cut your fabric into 7" x 7" squares, I used a sharpie, rotary knife, quilting square, and quilting mat to make it as easy as possible for me, make sure your pieces are square as this will give you trouble later if they aren't.  

Once you've got your fabric squares you can sew them together, sew 3 sides fully closed, and leave about a 3" hole in the fourth side somewhere in the middle so you can flip your fabric right side out. Upon completing the preliminary sewing you are ready to begin filling them, I made a funnel out of paper so I didn't end up with corn all over the floor. Your bags should weigh one pound with material and corn in them, I used a scale to make sure they were the right weight. Sewing can be a little tricky because the corn doesn't want to stay in place, so I found it helpful to pin the corn tightly down in the bag like so. I then sewed up the 4th side completely and had 2 sets of bags! 

The students really enjoyed them, and I enjoyed making them! Hopefully they will last for years to come, if you have any questions just let me know! Happy DIYing! 

The Lego Project

The Lego Project

My love for Lego's goes back quite a ways, I always loved building things and these nifty little blocks are no exception. Now you have to understand that even since I was a kid I have loved things organized and in their place. So naturally all of my Lego sets were kept together in their sets, all pieces accounted for. Enter my husband, this lovely man in his youth, did not have the same feelings as I did when it came to his Lego sets. We retrieved from his parents house a plastic tub of Lego's and Bionicle pieces, you guessed it, all loose and together. About two months ago my husband and I assembled all of the Bionicle sets, so what was left was the many many Lego pieces. Exhibit A: 

This started out as one large pile, and I started to disassemble this mess by sorting the pieces by color, hoping to make the search for the correct pieces a lot easier. Once the pieces were sorted by color, I started with a random instruction booklet. My husband helped here and there, I started this endeavor Friday night about 5pm. Here are a few more pictures showing the progress. 

We started assembling the sets and some went more smoothly than others. My desk quickly filled up with the sets we were putting together. The cool thing is my husband had a wide range of sets, I'm a Star Wars fan, so most of my sets are composed of different ships. 

Any pieces that were missing from the sets, I made a note on a post-it. I placed an order through Pick-a-                    brick on the Lego website, and will be able                                to complete most of the sets, but some are never                        going to be complete. 

After working on this all of Friday night, all day Saturday, and the majority of Sunday, all of the sets we had directions for were assembled. Did I mention that having to assemble the Mini-figures was one of the most frustrating things? When I had asked my husband why they were missing so many body parts, he says to me "They were in a war, lost appendages is part of the sacrifice!" These are the sets that were left over which having missing pieces. All of the sets were then disassembled and put into clear plastic baggies. 

That was that, it's a whole weekend worth of work but now all the sets we have are neatly organized. I can't say I sleep any better, but it's another thing I don't have to think about. The after picture of our floor, without any Lego's on it. 

I know this isn't technically a DIY post, but I thought it was blog worthy! 

DIY: Party Favors

DIY: Party Favors

My first blog post inspired me to do another. This one is very simple,  although it took me quite a while to complete only due to the mass quantity I needed to make, 200 in total. These were part of the party favor bags I put together for my wedding. They are made out of discs of wood, glued to a magnet, voila, refrigerator magnets.

STEP ONE: Select and Cut Material

This step is fairly simple, if you know where to look. Fortunately I knew of a tree that had been cut down and was able to collect some of the limbs to make my discs. They range in size from 2.5" to 3" in diameter and are about 3/8" thick. Like I said before due to the quantity I needed to make it took me a while to cut 200 of these little discs, but once this step is done it's smooth sailing. 

STEP TWO: Stamping Material 

I went to a craft store and picked up a stamp with the message I wanted to appear on the disc, mine happens to be 1 Corinthians 16:14, and an ink pad. I set up on my kitchen table in an assembly line fashion and began stamping the discs until they were all finished. 

STEP THREE: Glue Magnets

I was able to get magnets which I felt would adequately hold up the material they were meant to support. The ones I chose were grade 6 magnets. I flipped over all the stamped discs, placed a bead of glue on each, and pressed the magnet onto the glue. 

Additional Notes: 

After the glue has dried this simple project is finished! Inside the party favor bags, which were simple brown paper lunch sacks with a tag attached with twine, was this magnet, a small bag of candy, and some different flavor teas. There you have it, a really simple and easy party favor! 

DIY: Canvas Art

DIY: Canvas Art, A How To! 

Well, I'm finally getting around to attempting to post my projects I do so that others can try it too! Believe me, I don't do anything fancy and most of the time the projects that I see on Pinterest are cool but some, if not most, are way over my head! This is my attempt to share my crafts with others in a simple, easy to follow, step by step guide. First up, (drumroll please), DIY Canvas Art. 

This is a spin off from a project I saw on, you guessed it, Pinterest. I saw projects where people cut into canvas in geometrical patterns and hung them on their wall as art, so I got to thinking could you do that with any image? Here's what I came up with. 

STEP ONE: Select Images and Cut Out Images

I have an affinity for animals, and especially animals that roam the African Plains. Naturally I gravitated towards the animals shown above. I was careful in the selection of my photos, they needed to have enough shapes to be able to define the pictures but not to much so that the finished project would have "floppy" or loose pieces. Shown below are the pictures I chose, with the dark areas already cut out to produce the outlines. 

 There were a few minor adjustments I needed to make to the pictures so they wouldn't have those "floppy" areas. I used an exacto knife and rotary cutting mat to cut the outline. 

STEP TWO: Transfer Images to Canvas

I then transferred the cut out images to the back of the canvases using a pencil. I found that taping the image in place made it easier so they didn't move. To the right is a photo of the transferred image. 

STEP THREE: Paint Canvas

Just as the title suggests this is the step where you paint the canvas. At this point I had already transferred all three images onto the back of the canvas and was ready to add a pop of color. I chose the colors based on what I felt the colors of the animals were. Golden for Lion, Slate Blue for the Elephant, and Green for the Giraffe. Now I know you're probably thinking how does green relate to a Giraffe, since a gold color was already chosen for the lion I figured giraffes eat foliage which is green most of the time (my husband still doesn't know why I chose the color). In hindsight I should have painted the canvases ahead of time so they could be drying while I was cutting out the paper stencils. 

STEP FOUR: Cutting the Canvas

This part is by far the most arduous part of the process, let me tell you my fingers hurt for the next couple of days. The most important part in this step is to have a really sharp exacto knife. If you don't you are going to have a hard time making sharp lines. Power through the pain, you're almost done! Below are progress photos. 

STEP FIVE: Finish it up

Once your images are completely cut out, they are ready to be hung in your home wherever your heart desires! 

Additional Note: I had a spark of ingenuity after I was done with the project, to potentially putting sheer paper, or tissue paper behind the images, then put a light source behind the image. Voila! Night light for the kids at night. I cannot be sure how safe this will be as far as a heat source, so I will not be held responsible. Maybe someone knows about a more fireproof method to make this happen. Below are the finished products. 

CONCLUSION: What happens next. 

When I bought the canvases they came in two two packs, since this project only took three canvases, I still had one left over. I decided to do something that I would actually put in a child's room. 

Same process as above, when I was done though I put tissue paper over the back of the image, and backlight it before I took this photo. Calvin and Hobbes, doesn't get more awesome than that! 

I hope you found this enjoyable and informative, let your imagination fly! 

Tess