Homemade Board Games

Advantages of Homemade Board Games

Purchased board games are fun, both for personal use and for gift-giving. Their downside is that they are mass-produced, so each game looks alike. Sometimes a handmade board game can create even more fun and can be more useful to the players. Handmade board games can:

• Be fun for kids to make – The cutting, pasting and gluing make a great afternoon activity.
• Be educational – Games can be customized to emphasize school lessons.
• Be personalized – The players or gift recipient will enjoy seeing his or her name as he or she plays.
• Support the needs of the players – Bilingual or large print game boards can make game playing more enjoyable.

Customize Your Fun

Customizing an existing game is a good place to start your board game project. You can either personalize an existing game, or you can create a new version of the game using the existing game as a design model. For example:

• Create your own Monopoly game using the names of local streets
• Paint a plastic sheet to create a super large checker board for on-floor play with giant cardboard checker disks
• Add photos of family members to a child's game

Creating a themed game for a party makes a great memento of the party fun:

• Consider using a Bingo card maker to create a baby shower bingo game with pictures of gifts which the mother-to-be may receive at her shower.
• Build a retirement-based Monopoly board game with street, company and town names from the retiree's past and future.

Invent a New Game

If you are the super-creative type, consider inventing your own board game. You may, or may not, decide to share it with the world. Instead you may decide to keep it in your game library for personal use.

Supplies Needed

Templates for basic board game designs like Bingo templates are available online.

A craft store or a craft department in a large department store will usually have all the supplies you'll need to create your board game:

• White foam board – This easy-to-cut board is easy to draw and paste on. It is stiff, but lightweight.
• Colored marking pens – Markers with permanent ink will ensure that your artwork lasts as long as the fun.
• Construction paper – Buying large sheets of the colors you'll need for your design will alleviate the waste you might have had if you had purchased a package of letter-sized sheets in assorted colors.
• Dice – Buy an extra set, just in case you can't find one when you set up the game to play.
• Game tokens or markers – There is a wide variety of items available for game markers – charms, small cars, flat stones and, of course, the traditional "Hershey Kiss"-type markers.
• Place cards – These small cards make excellent game and playing cards.

For extra fun you might want to consider adding some customized touches to your game such as:

• Small personalized pencils – You can purchase short, pre-sharpened pencils online. For added fun, consider adding your own special touch like "Johnson Family Trivia." Or, you can commemorate a special occasion by adding a greeting like "Happy Retirement Tom" or "Sweet Dreams to New Baby Megan."
• Personalized money – Add your face, or the face of a person receiving the game as a gift, to the play money in the game. There are several online sources for personalized play money including CustomPlayMoney.com.

From Old to New

You don't have to build a game from scratch. Consider recycling game boards and pieces from old games that you purchase at a garage sale. You can add photos, bilingual notes and large type to create your own version of the game. The advantages of recycling an old game into a new creation are:

• You save money – The old game will probably cost less at the garage sale than you would pay for supplies to build a new game.
• Playing pieces are included – No need to locate and purchase new tokens or markers.
• A box is included – You will have a sturdy box in which your newly customized game can be stored.

Build It to Last

It is important for the game board and pieces to be durable so that they will remain intact after a lot of fun, raucous play. You also want your game to be preserved for years to come so that you, or your child, can pull it out of storage in 20 years and say "Remember the day we made this?"

Consider laminating your game board at a nearby copy shop. If you want to be able to fold the board, be sure to score it before you have the lamination completed.

A sturdy box used to store the game board and playing pieces will help keep the pieces intact. A paperboard mailing tube can also be used if the game board can be rolled.

For More Ideas

If you are looking for fun ideas for homemade board games, check out the many websites and books available on making board games. They are loaded with fun projects for all ages.

Websites

• Ready-Made Games and Game Boards – Design your game in Word or PowerPoint
• Microsoft Home Magazine - Use the templates on this website to make your own games in Word.
• Make a Game of Your Child's Life – Take pictures of family, events, friends and places
• Teacher Tools – Games and puzzles to download

Books and Articles

• Make Your Own Chess Set
• Books on Building a Crokinole Board Game
• Favorite Board Games You Can Make and Play
• 10 Vocabulary Card Games: Easy-to-Play, Reproducible Card and Board Games That Boost Kids' Vocabulary-and Help Them Succeed on Tests
• Your move! Create a board game and review history: a one-week classroom activity by Christine Bell