It was the day before Easter and we still hadnt thought of something unique to do for Connor. Having talked to my parents I knew that going into the city was out of the question because of the traffic. We were really limited. I thought I could find something but there was nothing that I knew would make him excited. I had planned a Scavenger Hunt for him with clues and the final clue was going to lead to something special. I said that he was playing checkers a lot on the computer and that may be we could find him a board. We could not. We were so frustrated but finally Sean said, Why not make him one? So we did!
What you need:
12x12 square of word
1.25inch wooden dowel
Mod Podge
Brushes
Paint in colors you want for your board and pieces
Saw
Painters’ tape
Photos cut in circles for game pieces
First we cut the wooden dowel into .75inch coins, sanded until smooth. You will need 24 pieces, 12 of each color. Paint your pieces and let them dry.
In Photoshop I took a picture of Connor and turned it into 1inch circle and duplicated it 12 times. I wanted to use the same pictures on both colors so I simply changed the color of his jacket using Photoshop. Using the Lasso tool I selected his jacket, then went to Image>Hue Saturation>Changed from Master to Blue>Upped the Saturation until his blue jacket turned red.
I then opened a second photo and added a crown from a stock photo and repeated the above steps. Printed them on good photo paper, cut them out and then using Mod Podge, glued the photos onto the coins. Blue jacket photo on the black coins, red jacket photos on the red coins. Regular photo on one side and the crown photo on the opposite side.
Sean cut a 12x12 piece of wood, painted it red and waited for it to dry. Then using painter’'s tape, he made a grid and painted the black squares. Each square equals 1.5inch. Voila! Your own custom checkerboard!!! We also added a 8x8 inch black base to lift it off of the table but that is not necessary. Sean just screwed that to the bottom of the board.
Connor LOV ED it! It was unique, personal and something he really cherishes now!
1 comment:
You just solved part of my Christmas! I have a Narnia-crazy 6 year old who is also really into checkers, and he is asking Santa for (among other things, of course) a Narnia checkerboard set. I had begun to ask myself just how I was going to produce such a thing, and now the answer is clear. Thanks for sharing!
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