DIY Network

Homemade Games

Crafter Michele Beschen, creator of the B Original series, explains how to create your own family games.

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	An assortment of homemade tile board games.
	Oversize pickup sticks to be played outside.

How to make a game table and pickup sticks

By Michele Beschen

Pick a game, any game! Try Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers, Nine Men's Morris--basically any game board that has an easy-to-replicate geometric pattern. You can research other game ideas at the library or online. Researching different game ideas is a great exercise and, more than likely, you'll learn a few new ones to play.

Tabletop Tile Games

To create a set of tabletop tile games, you'll need the following:

a hard surface tile such as granite, ceramic, marble or slate (You can use a smaller tile for a miniature game board or a larger 20-by-20 inch tile for a game that requires more surface area.)
wooden balls that are flat on one side
contact adhesive
automotive pinstriping tape
ruler
pencil
craft knife
self-adhesive paper
paper punch
water-based polyurethane
rocks, bottle caps, gemstones, etc.

Steps:

1. To make your game board easy to play on, you'll want to prop up the tile so that it sits nicely on the table. Do this by gluing wooden balls on the underside of the tile to serve as "feet." Secure the feet with a contact adhesive like E6000 or Goop.

2. You are now ready to lay out your game board design using the automotive pinstriping tape you've chosen. This tape comes in a variety of widths and colors and is readily available at all auto-parts stores.

3. To get your design exact, you can measure and mark points of placement with a pencil before putting your tape down. Designs that are square and geometric are a cinch, but be careful not to stretch the tape as you apply it. Use a craft knife to trim the edges. Trim away the excess tape and burnish down the edges of your tape.

4. If your game board requires other shapes such as dots or squares, they can easily be created by using paper punches and self-adhesive paper. You can also use store-bought office labels and cut them to size and shape.

5. Seal your finished game board with a couple coats of a water-based polyurethane. For your game pieces, be creative, and use items such as rocks, bottle caps or gemstones. Play to win!

If it's an outdoors game you want, here's a good idea: oversize pickup sticks. You'll wow all your friends when you pull this giant game out of the box. And it's an excellent game to play outdoors.

Oversize Pickup Sticks

Materials:

30 1/4-inch wooden dowels, each 36" in length
bench sander
paint

Steps:

1. Sand down both ends of each dowel so they taper to a blunt point. We used a bench sander, which made the job quick and easy. As you are sanding, be sure to roll the dowel continuously across the sandpaper so it doesn't get flat on one side.

2. To distinguish your sticks, you'll need to paint them in the following colors: one black, eight green, seven red, seven yellow and seven blue. You can paint the entire stick, or just the ends, as shown in the image above. You can get even more elaborate by carving and adding additional design to your dowels.

Each of the colored sticks represents a different number of points. Research the rules and point system online if you're not familiar.

To store your sticks in style, cap off the bottom of a piece of heavy cardboard tubing with a piece of wood and then deck it out with a bit of comic-strip decoupage.

(Michele Beschen is creator of the B Original series for the DIY Network. Contact her at www.couragetocreate.com, or visit www.diynetwork.com.)

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