Easy DIY Seasonal Board Game

Hello, fellow crafters!

Today, we're making a game that you can do very easily with household items.

If you love to make your own games too, but people are always telling you that you make it up as you go, then this craft is definitely for you!

I will link the rules to playing at the end of the Instructable.

Now let's get crafting!

• A hot glue gun
• Buttons
• Pony beads
• Corrugated cardboard
• Acrylic Paint
• Some sort of paint protector (I used packing tape, but Mod Podge will also work.)
• Paint pens (Optional)
• A die
• A permanent marker, like a Sharpie

Any kind of corrugated cardboard (like the kind from Amazon boxes) will work. You can cut out whatever size/shape you want, I used a 14" by 12 1/2" rectangle but whatever works for you. If you're like me and just broke down a box and it was the shape you wanted, there will be large darts. You can just glue/tape some spare cardboard to the bottom and it will work just as well. If you're cutting out of a large sheet of cardboard, I would recommend using an Xacto knife, but I didn't have one and scissors work too. You should also cut some little circles for tokens. I made 14, but I would recommend making at least 20.

To start, figure out how you want your game to look and what season you're doing. In this Instructable, I'll be doing a spring theme. Now, sketch out your path for moving lightly with a pencil. Once you're satisfied, go over it in a permanent marker. This will help later when we start painting. If you want any details drawn directly on the board, this is the time to sketch them out.

Now is the part where this starts to get interesting. It's time to add decoration! Cut out your shapes (I did trees and bushes), position them where you want, and tape them down with your packing tape. Then secure them with hot glue. You can glue them now or later on.

These are pretty simple to make. Just take a button, dab on some glue, and stick on a pony bead. Then let them dry. Also, since they use common items, you can make lots of them, enabling more people to be able to play your game at once. If you don't want to paint them, use the colors of beads and buttons that you like. If you're going to paint them, this is a good way to use up colors you don't like.

Now it's time to paint! I used Apple Barrel brand non-toxic acrylic paint. This was probably the longest step of the project, but it was also one of the most enjoyable. i painted the base green for grass, but it can also be white for snow or mixed colors for leaves on the ground. Now is also a good time to secure the decorations with hot glue if you haven't already. You can also make things like mounds of dirt or banks of a lake/river 3D with the hot glue.

This is one of the most crucial steps of the project. Since you will be touching and scratching the board a lot, it is absolutely necessary to make sure the paint doesn't chip off of the board. I used packing tape, but you can use Mod Podge as well. If you also use packing tape, take note that it can get a bit tricky working around your decals. This is also the time to bring back lost outlines and fill in the spaces. Write either + or - and then a number 1-5. You can also protect the paint on the tokens.

And now you're done! I love how this came out. So bright and cute! Have fun playing your new seasonal board game!

Instruction for play:

Roll the die. Move however many spaces it says. Follow the instructions on the space. If it is a subtraction one and you have no tokens or less tokens than it says to give away, just don't do anything. When one person reaches the end, the game is over. The person with the most tokens at the end of the game wins!