Design Your Own Board Game

     A couple of years ago, Brian and I made a Halloween board game.  While it would be impossible to give exact directions on how to make a board game since there are so many different things you can do with games, here are some tips to help you get started, using Brian's and my board game as an example.

Materials I used:
*Photo paper
*Camera
*Paint (computer program)
*Microsoft Publisher
*Mounting squares
*Grocery store pizza box
*Printer paper
*Cardstock

Directions:
*Choose a theme.  Brian and I decided that we wanted a spooky Halloween game.
*Determine the object of the game.  What is it that a player will have to do to win the game?  For our game, we decided that the winning player would have to escape from a ghoul infested cemetery.

*Start thinking about the layout of your game board.  What will the path look like?  Will you have any special squares?  Brian and I have squares that require players to draw a card, that instruct players to take a particular shortcut, that turn players into monsters, and that turn players human again, among others.  We had special "open grave" squares that if a player landed on one, she or he would lose a turn.

*Many board games involve cards.  If you would like to include a deck of cards in your game, ask yourself what type of tools your cards will afford players.  What can they do to aid a player and what can they do to thwart a player?  In our game, we have cards that require players to move forward or backward and to move to special squares, we have cards that will turn a player into a monster, and we have cards that will turn a monster player human again.

*Once you have outlined a basic concept for your game, it's time to start thinking about the mechanics and the graphics of your game.  Will players roll dice to determine their movement, or is there some other mechanism you would like to use to determine the distance players travel?  What kind of images will you use on your game board and on your deck of cards (if you are including a deck of cards)?  What will you make your tokens out of?  What are the maximum and minimum numbers of people who can play your game?  Brian and I used a die in our game and we used images of tombstones and other cemetery related imagery.  We used paper tokens; the human ones Brian drew and the monster ones we printed from this site.  Our game is designed for 2-4 players.

*Now it's time to start designing your game.  How you go about it is really up to you.  Brian and I designed all of our graphics in Paint, with the exception of the grass and the rocks.  We photographed the rocks and the grass that we used as our board game.  After creating all of our images, we put the game board together in Microsoft Publisher and we used Microsoft Publisher to put together the images on the cards as well.  We then printed the game board onto a couple of sheets of photo paper and adhered it to cardboard obtained from a grocery store frozen pizza box.

*Write up a set of rules for your game so that others can understand how your game works.  This may also help you tie up some loose ends that you may not have thought about before.  For example, you may want to write down a note about whether two players can occupy the same space at once and if not, what happens when two players land on the same square?

If you would like to see Brian's and my game in action, check it out here or on YouTube! 

Stylish Storage Containers II

Need some ideas for creative storage containers?  Here are a couple new ones and if you're still looking for more ideas, see my original post last fall, Stylish Storage Containers, which contains five more ideas.

Duct Tape Oatmeal Canister



 

     I needed a container to store my duct tape in and realized that an oatmeal canister would be the perfect size. When figuring out how I wanted to decorate my container, I figured that nothing could be more appropriate for this canister than duct tape. 

Materials:
*Empty oatmeal canister
*Duct tape in various colors and patterns
*Permanent markers
*Scissors

Directions:
*Wrap five pieces of duct tape of varying colors and/or patterns around the canister.
*For the lid, cut out a little rectangle of duct tape.  Place it on the lid so that the bottom corners of the tape are touching the edge of the lid.
*Cut out another rectangle of duct tape and place it so that one corner touches the lid in the same spot as one of the corners of the first piece of duct tape and the other corner touches another part of the lid.
*Repeat the procedure until the entire lid has been covered.
*Add a piece of patterned duct tape or some other adornment to the center of the canister to cover up any gaps in duct tape.
*Use a permanent marker to conceal gaps in the duct tape around the edge of the lid.

Geometric Holographic Pen Bucket

 

     I've always been fond of holographic paper.  These days it reminds me of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books that I adored when I was a child.  When I found holographic paper at my local JoAnn Fabrics store, I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my crafting.  Here's my second craft project using holographic paper:

Materials:
*Empty, clean ice cream container
*Five sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 self-adhesive holographic paper in varying colors and patterns
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut three strips from each paper about 8 1/2" in length and 1" wide.
*Cut these strips into triangles.
*Adhere the triangles to the container in a pattern you find pleasing.

Tie Dyed Sheet

Materials:
*Fabric dye
*Rubber bands
*White or light colored sheet.

Directions:
*Divide the sheet into sections using rubber bands.  You should end up with something that looks kind of like this:

*Prepare dye solution in your sink according to the directions on the dye bottle.
*One by one, dip each section of your sheet into the dye solution, holding it in the dye for about 3 seconds.  This part can get very messy, so you shoud probably wear clothes that you wouldn't mind staining.
*Rinse the sheet under warm water, then throw in the washing machine with the rubber bands still on.
*Once the sheet is done washing, remove the rubber bands and set it out to dry.
Note: you can use the remaining dye in the dye bath to tie dye other things like T-shirts, towels, etc using the same method.  I tie dyed a T-shirt using the excess dye.

Fun Fractal Origami Paper

Brian created a program to generate the Mandelbrot fractal and I saw so many cool images that I couldn't help but want to use them in my crafts.  I ended up using the images to make origami paper.

Materials:
*Printer paper
*Fractal image
*Printer
*Scissors

Directions:
*Select a fractal image.  You can choose one of the ones I've shared below if you would like, or you can choose one of your own. 
*Print the fractal image onto a sheet of ordinary thickness printer paper.
*If you would like double sided origami paper, print a block of color on the other side.
*If the paper begins to wrinkle, place it underneath a heavy book for a little while to flatten it back out.
*Cut out the square containing the fractal image.  Now you have your own patterned origami paper.

Here are a few origami creatures I made using my fractal origami paper.  I found the directions for the butterfly here and the swan here.  The site I got these instructions from has instructions for all kinds of cool origami creations.

Here are some cool fractal pictures to use for your origami paper: