Building Your Own Board

Materials Needed:
Print of the Gameboard from the Download Section
Cutting Surface
Exacto Knife
Metal Ruler
Any board .25 - .5 " thick, MDF or Masonite works well
Adhesive Spray
Mod Podge Gloss Lustre
Medium Sized Brush(able to fit in the mouth of the Mod Podge jar)
#400 Sand Paper

Step 1: Getting the print


First you will need to print the gameboard. The pictures in reference of the print are not the same as the one available in the Download section. The one available in the download section is the beige board, not the red one above. if you are interested in the red board, you can contact me for the file.
Most home printers cannot print at 11x17, so you will most likely have to take it to a local print shop and have it printed on heavy Photo Paper. Before I bought my Canon i9900, I used to take all my large prints to Kinkos. What is nice with Kinkos is that you can send them the PDF file online and pick up the print the following day. Try www.kinkos.com.

Step 2: Cutting the print


Once its printed, you will want to cut it out. Lay down your cutting surface and be precise when aligning your ruler, then hold the ruler firmly and cut. You want to make sure the ruler is down firm, so you wont cut into the game board.

Step 3: Cutting the board


This is where you will need to either cut this board at home, or from the hardware store that you picked it up at. At my local Lowes Hardware, they will cut the board for you for a small fee. The print is sized at 10.5 x 11.75, so I cut the board at 11.5 x 12.75 to give a .5" border around the print. After the board has been cut, the edges may have some frays on it. To clean up the edge, run your sandpaper around the board to clean it up.
With the Red style print, I decided to spray paint the cut board black just for looks. You don't have to do that. The beige print looks really nice with a wood colored border.

Step 4: Edging the print


This is where we get the print to look really nice against the border. Take a flat tipped permanent black marker(such as Marks-A-Lot), and run the tip down the edge of the four sides of the paper. This will make it very clean looking because no white from the edge will show up against the wood.

Step 5: Mounting the print to the board

This step is pretty easy. Take your print and lay it upside down on some newspaper(outside is better). Take the adhesive spray and spray the whole backside, make double sure that the edges of the print are sprayed so it won't fold back up on you later. Then take the print and align it in the center of the board and firmly press down the print. I like to lay heavy books on top and leave it for about a half an hour.

Step 6: Mod Podge

This is the final step. Take your board outside and lay down some new newspaper(The old paper will be sticky from the adhesive spray). Open the Mod Podge and pour a small puddle onto the board in the center, then spread it around on the board. Then begin "painting" the Mod Podge up and down, keeping the same stroke direction. Once its been covered lightly and evenly, let it sit for about 20 minutes. Clean your brush during the wait, and when the time is up, go back and put a second coat on. You will want to have put on about 3 - 4 coats when you are done. If the finish isn't very smooth when the final coat is completely dry, VERY lightly sand the surface.

Now your board is complete. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.