DIY UK Wildcats Cornhole Game Boards

UK Wildcats Corn hole Game Boards

Cornhole is a fun outdoors, summer family game that we enjoy at cookouts. You may also know it by the name "bean bag toss."
It's a simple concept game. You simply throw bean bags towards a board and try to sink it in the hole for 3 points or at least land it on the board for 1 point. The team that reaches the score of 21 first wins.

Official rules of cornhole found at ACA
 

We play every year at most every summer cookout.

And we always played with these plain cornhole boards that my husband made or my brother in laws boards who were plain as well.

Notice our plain boards? Still fun but not fun to look at!

Well, being as most of my family is into sports and they all love UK Wildcats, my brother in law, Robert, asked me to do his in a UK Wildcat theme.

So here goes.

First, I painted them a gloss white with outdoor paint:

Then I used some masking tape to make the large triangle that will point towards the hole.

Remember when sticking it that you will be painting on the inside of the lines.

And then I took some blue outdoor paint, from Walmart in semi gloss and painted the triangle. Remove the tape and let it all dry.

Next, I needed to add a UK logo.
So I printed out one online to lookout as a template.

This was the hardest part for me.

I free-handed the UK symbol the best I could in pencil. Double lines, kind of outline it.

I had to keep a UK picture close to keep looking back and forth.

Then I took a small paintbrush, well a makeup brush really, and filled in the pencil lines:

It's a little crooked if you look close, but good enough for me!

And now on to the easy part.

My brother in law had bought some UK logo, clear cling decals for me to try to use.

I took some E-6000 craft glue from Walmart and rubbed some of it on the backs. To make sure they hold good. And that glue does hold strong.

NOTE:
I just do not like the clear plastic around it now after seeing it in a photo.
I do wish I had trimmed all the excess clear plastic off and just glued on the helmet logo itself.

 See what I mean about being able to see the clear lining of the decal?
Next time I will definitely cut it all off before gluing. 

Do you see the large wildcat on the front ends?

I didn't have anything to go there so I printed out a wildcat on plain computer paper. I cut it out very closely and applied it with the E-600 glue also.
Use as little as possible or it will start to distort the paper.

Once dried, I sealed it with a craft paint sealer.

And I also went over the entire board with a can of clear coat sealer found at Walmart.
I'm sure you could probably brush on clear coat protector also if you have it.
Just test o a small part first.

When not in use be sure to store these indoors so that the logos don't ruin.

The paint will be fine, it's just the logos that I worry about as it is the first time I've ever used them like this.

I also made a set of matching UK bean bags.
Well, the best I could anyways.
I know they should be made of  Duck Cloth but I didn't have any on hand. I'd never made bean bags before so this was a first.

I found a bunch of this UK fabric at the flea market for only $5.00.

Looked up the measurements (6 in x 6 in and wieght 16 oz) and such and cut them out.
Seems you can either fill them with brown beans or whole kernel feed corn.
I went ahead and did beans since they were on hand.

I hope these can withstand a bit of throwing.
We shall see! 
If not then I will make some new ones from the mighty Duck Cloth!

I'm not very good at corn hole, I just get lucky a lot. But with the right partner, we have won every game each year, so far for the last 5 years! lol. 

I hope I didn't jinx the next game!!! lol

I will probably make another set similar to these and put them for sale in my 
Etsy Shop.

But I'm still trying to think up a reasonable price.
What would you suggest?

UPDATE:

Some friends wanted me to also make Jack Daniels themed boards along with Bud Light themed boards. 

I did and I will share them on my next post.

Have you ever played the game of corn hole bean bag toss?

DIY BARN WOOD PLANTERS and more

Hey ya'll!

Since Spring has sprung around here, it really has me in the flower posting mood.

So I'd like to share a post of a few makeshift planters I've done.

The first is a basic box that I made out of leftover pieces of barn lumber from my Barn Wood Shelves and Cabinets:

Just build a basic rectangle and leave the top open. I also left a little gap in the sides (see pic #3 below.)

My little doggie Princess helped me try it out:

She fit. She loves being outside digging in flower dirt and such.

 I left the sides open a little bit so that the water would drain out easy.

And I also dry brushed on some black paint to give it a more primitive look. Don't cover up the old wood, just kinda add some streaks to it.

Then our (neighbors) cat, "Big Kitty" tried out another one that I installed.

I attached metal flower hangers to the wall under the window and used them to sit the box on.

And I have to share one more pic before I go. 

This is a photo from last summer.  I had seen numerous posts flying around on Pinterest showing how to use old galvanized tubs as planters. So I tried it in a few.

This one was one of my favorites.

I used a photo editor to get the framed "aged" affect.

Just take any size metal tub you may have and hang it from a regular Shepards hook.

Fill the bottom with soil and add your flowers.

One thing that I need to mention is that since the metal tub draws lots of heat, the flowers tend to need a lot of watering.

I went ahead and put in one of those glass, self watering things they've came out with that is shaped like a large ear dropper. I found it at the Dollar Mart for only $1.00. And it helped keep it moist a little bit between waterings.

 And I also had a few longer and wider tubs to try things in:

Old Tub was great as a Strawberry Planter!

This was the year before when I sewed a wildflower mix in the tub. They grew wonderfully and I got many cuttings for vases and jars out of it!

HAVE YOU STARTED PLANTING ANY FLOWERS YET THIS SPRING?

DIY: Vintage Halloween Labels

Halloween Labels

I know it's not close to time yet but here's a Halloween post.
Or if you buy other themed labels, leave them out all year.

For this post, I ordered some sticky Halloween themed labels from eBay, (because I didn’t feel like going out and buying the sticker paper & buying images on Etsy at the moment.)
Which has awesome images btw, if you've never thought of that!

I made a lil box of things with labels to go in my Peddlers Mall booth as well. Here they are after I used what I needed, I packaged the left over labels up for sale in my booth also. 

So people can put them on what they want, if they don’t like my pre-made items.

As you see, they are just basically pre-made stickers with cute Halloween themes. 

That’s it. Ready to stick. 

Just find an object to put them on. 

Here’s some more pics of how I used them below on an old medicine bottle, can of beans and a can of tuna. I just took off the original labels and stuck them right on.

 

And here’s a little display I made on the front porch. Note the cute little barn wood cabinet that my wonderful hubby Greg made! Gotta love a crafty man! :-)

(Barn Wood Cabinets Shelves and Cabinets)

I also sell them in my Booth#555.

I love these labels. 

So simple but they add a unique look for my decorations. 

Happy Crafting Ya'll!

-Lisa

Easy SUITCASE Display for Homes or Craft Shows

 Do you love old suitcases but don't know what to do with them?

Here is a cute and easy idea for a craft show display. Or for even just decorating in and around you country home.

• Find (at flea markets or such) or dig out an old suitcase you  may have. 

• Cut a piece of fabric that will fit the inside liner. (It doesn't have to be perfect, look close at my photo, I almost ran out on the bottom, but it still works.

• Then just take some glue, (I used Martha Steward NO SEW fabric glue) but you could easily use a hot glue gun also, and glue the fabric directly to the liner.

• Let it dry and decorate!

That's it. So simple yet so cute.

An old stack of books with old reading glasses laying inside would look awesome in a living room as a cute set up.

This fabric lined suitcase is for sale in my

Booth#555

$9.99

SOLD

Thank You!

DIY ELMERS GLUE CRACKLE SPOON MAGNETS

NOTE: I also tied homespun to these before packaging them up!

I recently made these cute little crackle paint

Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Flour and Egg Spoon Magnets.

They were very simple, here's how to do it and what you need:

• Elmers Glue
• Small wood spoons (the size that comes with icecream)
• craft paint in off white
• craft paint in burgundy (for wording)
• small round magnets (found at Walmart or Dollar Mart)
• 2 paintbrushes

I started with these plain, wooden craft spoons that I found on eBay:

I wanted to give the base a crackle type finish so I started with doing that.

It's easy without buying crackle paint, just get you a bottle of Elmers glue or something similar.

Lay out all the spoons to be painted on some wax paper if you like. 

This helps keep the counters clean and makes for an easy cleanup too.

• Okay, here is the first thing you need to do.

Brush on a good amount of plain Elmers type glue onto a few of your wood spoons.

Give them about a minute to set. Not long enough to dry, just to begin to set. But still wet.

• Next, with one motion, (larger brush) take some of your off white craft paint, with one stroke if possible, and cover the entire spoon.  If you can do it with one motion it will make for the best crackle setting.  If not, don't worry, just go back with a light stroke and cover the rest with the off white.

• For me it seems that the less paint strokes of the off white, onto the elmers glue, is the best for the finished crackle.  It doesn't let the paint and the elmers glue mix so much and distort the finish.

As the paint and elmers glue starts to dry, the glue pulls the paint and you will start to see the really cool crackle effect.  I get the same result as with the expensive crackle paint, so I just keep using the cheaper Elmers glue.

 Isn't that cool?

Just think of all the possibilities of colors you could combine like this with a base coat shinning through.

And then I just had to go in and free hand on come kitchen themed words:

And then just let that all dry.

Okay, now on to the last step.  Attaching the little round magnets to the back.

I found this 20 piece button magnets at the Dollar Mart for only $1.00!

Now usually, I will only use the silver tube of E-6000 when applying magnets, but I was out.  So I went ahead and applied these with the elmers glue.  Since these spoons are so lightweight, it is holding good.

Here they are all finished:

I also tied some strips of homespun to these before packaging them up in celo wrappers.
They just made them so much cuter!

These are for sell by the set of 5 in my 

Booth#555

for $4.95

I will try to find time to add some to my Etsy shop soon!

But oddly, it never gets much traffic for some reason.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that ya'll give this cute craft a try!

-Lisa

Note: 

I bet this type of finish would look cute on the small snowman spoons also!

These are for sell in my Booth#555 for .99cents each

Primitive Old Wood SIMPLIFY BOX

As a quick share for today, I'm gonna show you some pics of an old wooden box.

When I got it, it was all plain and dirty and with years of leaves and crud inside.

It didn't matter to me though, I knew I could do something with it.

 

I took a water hose to it at first with a good scrubbing consisting of about 4 brillo pads.

And then after it all dried good, I got out my stencils.

Looking for a big one, I choose the one as you see saying, "Simplify."

And the large star.

I get all of my stencils off from eBay by just searching for "primitive stencils."

Anyways, after using some Delta stencil paint, (also found on eBay,)

 

I let it dry for about 24 hours.  

If you've ever worked with the Delta stencil paints before, you know this is a must because they take a long time to dry because it is oil based.  But the good thing is that they cover great and last long.

After that I just took some craft sealer, found in the craft paint section

 and put on a coating of that in matte.

  

In this pic below you can still see it a bit wet looking before it had dried completely:

But don't worry, it dries completely clear:

And here it is all finished and ready to sell:

It is for sell in my craft Booth#555

$19.99

Sold

THANK YOU!