Last year, I drove by a park late one evening after work and saw a set of home-made bag go boards sitting in the same place they had been for a week. At that point I decided, "Finders Keepers" and packed them up into my trusty Kia. A few weeks later, I happened to be home one day with nothing to do (Read: Boston Lockdown of 2013) and decorated the Baggo boards in style that fit myself and my group of friends (that would probably be playing the most on the game). This is what I came up with:
(For those of you that don't know... these are lyrics from a Country Song)
Since then though, I've moved from the most unfairly large 4 bedroom apartment in Brookline to sharing a 1 bedroom with a man that already thought I had "too much stuff" (as if such a thing could be). Anyways, in September, I was forced to find a new temporary home for my beloved adopted boards. Since we had a pretty terrible Winter and (unknowingly to me) my poor boards were stored outside... their temporary home turned into their final resting place.
Fast forward to this summer, and my feeling a distinct lack of bag throwing... I came across a set on Joss and Main at a steal! Unfortunately, a ton of other folks found the same steal and I wound up waiting about a month for them to arrive. That time did allow extra time to contemplate my personalization.
I knew I liked the lyric idea, but I had already planned like 5 country concerts with my friends for the summer... how could I choose just ONE song to represent on these guys. This conundrum lead me to researching different ways to have changeable Baggo Boards... but nothing I found on the internet or pinterest made me believe these had ever been successfully made. So like every decent innovation, my necessity inspired my invention of the process to make Chalkboard Baggo Boards.
And now I share it with the world:
So first, I started with Baggo Boards with a pretty smooth finish... think IKEA furniture smooth. So I knew I'd need something over the boards to keep the bags from sliding right off. I looked into regular chalk board paint, but that offered only one color. I found folks all over that had innovated DIY Chalfboard paint that could range in color. But THEN I came across a few craft blogs that talked about CLEAR CHALKBOARD PAINT (Yup, you read that right!). A company called DecoArt makes Clear Chalkboard Paint that had been reviewed as durable and simple. So I ordered some from Amazon to try it out for myself.
Before I get too far into that, I should address a question I'm sure you're asking yourself... "Chalk on a Baggo Board? Amy, you're crazy! That will get wiped right off during the first game!". I had the same thought. So again, I did some research, and I learned the Liquid Chalk is usually a great replacement for your typical chalk needs... and it shows up bolder and brighter! I couldn't find any reviews or more information about how Liquid Chalk works on Clear Chalkboard Paint though, so I got some of those Liquid Chalk Markers to play around with, as well (Thanks Blicks!).
Can you believe I had the perfect test material for this project? My brother had gotten me a Desk-Top Baggo Game for Christmas a while back, and while it was never useful as a work distraction, it came in mighty handy here! On the board that came with this set- which happened to have a very similar finish to the big baggo boards- I tested the Liquid Chalk Markers and the Clear Chalkboard Paint.
From those tests I found that the Liquid Chalk doesn't come off just ANY surface, it more easily comes off the Chalkboard Paint. To remove the Liquid Chalk from that, though, takes some elbow grease, and some chemicals. A review I read mentioned Clorox wipes which work well. When Dan saw that I had gone through a few of those wipes for a small surface area of Liquid Chalk removal, he insisted I find a better way, and after some tries, I was really impressed- and therefore satisfied- with the results of 409 (or any other all-purpose house cleaner, I imagine) and paper towels to remove even Dark Liquid Chalk from the light colored background.
So far, I've made two designs I've been really happy with on my Baggo Boards, and I'm always thinking of the next design! I decided that sometimes I won't necessarily come up with a new design in time for the next tailgate or summer party so I added three Chevron stripes of your typical house paint on each, to add some permanent interest and to compliment my designs as they change.
(To review: DecoArt Clear Chalkboard Paint, any Liquid Chalk Markers- also called wet-erase, and some all-purpose cleaner)
Here is my final product... CHALKBOARD BAGGO BOARDS!!
Fourth of July (#MURICA) Baggo
Florida Georgia Line (@FLAGALine) Baggo
No comments:
Post a Comment