University Themed DIY Cornhole Game

This is a sponsored post by Homeright. All opinions are 100% my own.

This past year has been filled with a lot of excitement for our family. Our oldest son spent the year looking for and applying to universities and after a few visits and lots of prayers, he decided that Baylor University in Waco, Texas felt like home to him. After our visit to the Baylor campus, we did what any Fixer Upper fan would do and we hit the Magnolia Market and Silos {in case you want to go, here are 5 things you need to know before your Magnolia Market visit} and while the store was filled with eye candy, we ended up having the most fun, just hanging out playing cornhole on the lawn. 

I happened to mention to Aidan that if he decided to go to Baylor, I would make him a cornhole game for his graduation party, since cornhole seems to have not hit it's popularity out in our parts of the world just yet.

So a few weeks before his party, my husband and I got started on making a DIY cornhole game board for his graduation party complete with university logo and handmade university colored bean bags. I've got a few tips for you if you want to make your own cornhole game as well.

There are a lot of building plans for a cornhole game. My husband used these plans to create ours and I think they turned out great. He's a pretty handy guy, and it took him around three hours, start to finish to create the boards.

After the boards were complete, he removed the legs and I set up my Homeright Spray Shelter. In typical Pacific Northwest form, we had rain for days and while I could have painted them outside, I find that having this spray shelter is beyond helpful for all of my DIY needs because lets be honest, I can't rely on the weather when I have a project to complete. I have been caught in the rain and struggling to get a project that's drying out of the elements before it's ruined all of my hard work more times than I would like to count, so this spray shelter is almost always a lifesaver.

It sets up in minutes and all you have to do is throw a tarp on the floor to protect your work surface.

I started by spraying a light coat of green spray paint on the board. I needed two coats, so I let them dry between coats.

While they were drying, I went inside and worked on creating the logo on my Silhouette machine. I used gold foil vinyl and cut out the image.

When the boards were dry, I simply peeled the vinyl off the paper backing and added it to the cornhole game. If you want to learn how to use adhesive vinyl like a pro, you can check out this tutorial. The next time I make one of these games, I would actually paint a sealer underneath the area where my logo will go before I place the vinyl and then on top of it as well.  Vinyl likes to have a surface to stick to and it doesn't always stick well to wood.

I also used fabric in the school colors to create 6x6 bean bags filled with 1 pound of seed corn {I had the corn left over from this project}. The first few bean bags I made actually broke after throwing them only a few times. I went back and created new bean bags, this time I used a heavier fabric and I not only sewed the seams closed, I also used a zig zag stitch AND I used my serger. Probably over kill, but I wanted to make sure these would hold up for his party.

We actually didn't really know the official cornhole rules. Like I said, this game hasn't really made it's way out to our coast just yet, though I see it played at lots of tailgating parties and friends backyard BBQ's in the Midwest.  We had to google the rules to find out how to play cornhole.

Your boxes should be 27 feet from each other and each team gets 4 bean bags. You can play with 2 or 4 people.

Instead of trying to explain the rules, I thought I would copy and paste the official rules from CornHole How To.

SCORING AND WINNING:

Scoring is simple. After all bags have been thrown, a bag remaining on the board is worth 1 point. A bag that went in the hole is worth 3 points. Add up how many points you earned and compare them to your opponents. Equal points cancel each other out so that only one team can score per round. For example, if you scored 5 points and your opponent scored 3, you will add 2 points to your overall score and your team will throw first in the next round. If you scored 6 points and your opponent scored 6 as well, there will be no points awarded and whoever threw first in the last round will throw first again. A game is won when a team reaches 21 points with a lead of 2 or more points. The first team to win 2 games wins the match.

Of course, you can play with your own rules. For example, some play with the rule that you must reach 21 exactly. If you go over in points, your score is automatically reduced to 11 and play continues. Another variation is to count every point (no negation of equal points) and see who has the most points at the end of 13 rounds.

Of course, don't feel like you have to follow the rules either. We set our own house rules and still had a great time!

This game is a ton of fun. It's great for all ability levels and all ages and really doesn't have a lot of restrictions for play. It's easy to make and perfect for your next outdoor party! Give it a try if you haven't already.

I know you are going to want to make your own. One of the most helpful parts of creating this game was being able to use the Homeright Spray Shelter. The good people at Homeright are letting me give one away to one of my readers.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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