CUSTOM CORNHOLE BOARDS

This idea came to me when I saw how much joy my daughter had playing cornhole.  Add in the fact that she owns her own business and voilà....you have the perfect Christmas present!  This was a true joint effort between my husband and me and took quite some time.  But, it was so worth it.  To me, personalized gifts are so awesome, and when they're handmade it's even better.

I'm so thrilled with how they turned out......and even better, our daughter was ecstatic!

My husband was in charge of the woodworking and I was responsible for the bean bags and the artwork on the boards.   We tag teamed this project so well.  He did the research to ensure the boards were "regulation".  I researched the same thing for the bags, including size and how much feed corn they're supposed to have in each one.  I even measured out the corn on my postal scale so each one is exactly the same weight!

I wish I could remember exactly when we started...I think it was sometime in September.  We were able to work in the garage for a time, but due to the change in the weather, we ended up having to move indoors to finish the painting.

I have to tell you I was concerned about getting straight lines for the borders since I had yet to find a tape that really sealed.  But, I am now a personal spokesperson for Frog Tape.  It is outstanding!  No bleed through at all and perfectly crisp lines.
For the company logo, I used my silhouette machine.  I uploaded my daughter's logo to the software and then used the stencil material, which worked great.  I was able to paint right over it, and only needed to touch it up ever so slightly.

I found some canvas in light blue and grey colors (they were so close to her actual colors it was uncanny) for the bean bags and then made a tote bag with some canvas remnants I already had on hand.   It has both a drawstring
top and a shoulder strap for easy carrying.

To help carry the boards, I purchased drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby (when they were 50% off, of course).  We placed two on each board.  My husband visualized two people carrying them with the people in the middle and the boards on either side of them.  Hopefully it works as slick as we planned.


After everything was painted, we finished the boards with a couple of clear coats of gloss finish to add some sheen and also provide a nice protective coat for all our hard work.   

You may already know that I have a hard time waiting until Christmas when I have a really cool gift that someone may like.  That was the case with this project.    We gifted them to her this Thanksgiving weekend in hopes there may be a few more days yet this year when she may be able to have some friends over for a cornhole tournament!