Backgammon Game

Melissa & Doug toys come in these amazing wooden trays that you never know what to do with.  One thing I know for sure, the pieces never end up back in its nice little wooden tray.  So what is a girl to do? Repurpose of course!!

I have about 6 of them which have been sitting in my stash for over a year.  I just couldn’t part with them.  They are solid wood and I knew an idea would pop into my head one day.  Well, today is the day!

My husband’s family loves playing Backgammon, or as we call it, Acey Deucey.  I thought it would be fun to make our own custom version using the wooden boxes.

Supplies:

Melissa & Doug Birthday Party and Pizza Party box

(others will work just make sure they are close enough to the right size)

120 grit sandpaper

hammer

spray primer

spray paint

hinge

Mod Podge (I used Gloss)

Foam brush

Patterned Paper or cardstock

Electric Drill

Dice

clasp

Paper Cutter or Exacto knife

30 game pieces (15 of each color)

Bag to store pieces in

 

1.  Using a hammer knock off the divider pieces on the sides so that you just have the tray with no dividers in it.  You could fill in those divots with wood filler but I kinda of like the fact that you know it was “something else” in its past.  I think it adds character.

2.  Lightly sand the entire surface down. Spray prime and paint the boxes. I used Valspar Petrol Blue because I got it for $1 on clearance at Michaels. 3.  Measure the width of your tray at the narrowest end.  Mine were 8 1/2”.  Since I needed 6 triangles I divided that number by 6 and got 1.375 or 1 3/8”.  So the width of the widest part of the triangle needs to be 1 3/8”.  The height is 4”.

4.  I used American Crafts new line Hello Sunshine.  I used the papers Glow (for the letters) and Delicate (both the front and backside) for the triangles.  To cut the triangles cut them 4” tall by 1 3/8” wide on a paper cutter or with an Exacto knife.5.  Make sure you use two different colors of paper and you alternate the colors. (Note: Across the board should be the opposite color.)  Using an even coat of Mod Podge glue your triangle papers burnishing them in place so that you don’t get any bubbles. 6.  Next I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the letters “Acey Deucey” in the Pharmacy font from dafont.com.  If you don’t have a Silhouette machine then you can purchase scrapbooking stickers to achieve the same effect.7.  I Mod Podged the letters on as well.  When everything was dry I gave it two coats of gloss Mod Podge over the entire tray surface to seal everything in place.

8. I purchased small hinges at Ace Hardware (using a $5 gift card for becoming a rewards member so they were free ;-).  Leaving a small gap (the size of the width of the hinge part) I marked and predrilled holes 1” from the edge of the tray.  Then I screwed them in place with an electric drill. 9.  Then I purchased a clasp for $1.99 at Menards and screwed that in place.

I could have put a handle on it but I don’t plan on traveling with it so I didn’t bother. 

I already had dice in my stash but I did purchase small glass rectangles (one bag of clear and one bag of turquoise) from Dollar Tree for the game pieces.  I had a random organza bag in my stash and threw the game pieces in there.

And I have myself a custom Acey Deucey game for les than $5!