Clemson Cornhole!

Most everyone in my family, and several others, know that Will and I embarked on a new challenge this Christmas - making a crafty gift. On my mom's side of the family, we draw names for our gift exchange. Will and I ended up with my aunt and uncle, and we were wondering what to get them. We know they are big Clemson fans, and they love games. Will came up with the idea of making a Clemson themed cornhole set. After a quick check of prices to buy an already made set, we reconfirmed that this was something we wanted to make.

We followed the instructions on this website and it wasn't too bad. First, Will and his dad worked on the frame for the boards.

After the frames were built, we sanded and primed the boards, and got them ready for paint. We knew we wanted to paint them in a Clemson color scheme, so we headed down to our new favorite store, Home Depot! I was looking for a great orange and purple that would be close to Clemson's colors, but what do you know, Home Depot has the officially licensed Clemson orange, purple, and even white. We loaded up on our official colors and headed home.

Our first step was to paint a white stripe diagonally from the bottom corner of each board up past the hole. After that dried, we taped down what need to remain white. Then, we painted white over the edges of the tape in order to seal it. That should prevent any orange or purple paint from seeping into our nice white line. 

After this step, it was three coats of high gloss paint in each color. We wanted the colors to be rich, and the website suggested high gloss for durability. 

Side note: the sunroom/art studio/random room between the garage and our living room has been the perfect place for some of these projects!

Once the top coat was almost dry, Will and I very carefully pulled up the tape. I was so nervous at this point because I really wanted them to be perfect. Luckily, the tape held great and there were very few imperfections. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them once the tape was off. 

I was too busy heading to make the bean bags, or corn bags. Actually, all I did was pay for the stuff. My mom helped me pick out some orange and white canvas, as well as some purple dye. I picked up some feed corn from the local gardening store, and headed to Nana's after Mom and Sammy dyed the white canvas purple. 

My Nana sewed three sides of the bags, we flipped them right side out and filled them to the brim with corn. Supposedly the corn breaks down after being thrown a lot, so you are supposed to start with very full bags. Then, Mom sewed the remaining side up. 

Finally it was time to give our gift! Since we couldn't really wrap up the set, we decided that once Allen and Carey were settled in their seats, Will and I would slip out and set everything up in the garage. We would let them go out after everyone had opened presents. Since the adults only get one present here, as they were handing them out, it became more and more obvious that Allen and Carey had nothing to open. Apparently it was pretty funny to watch, but I was paying more attention to the little ones!

After everyone was done, we told Allen and Carey to head to the garage for their present, but told them it wasn't a car. They exchanged a very confused look and went out to look at their present. They instantly knew what it was, but the icing on the cake was when Carey said "Wait, you MADE this?!". We explained the rules to Campbell and headed outside. 

I was so hoping for a nice day so we could play outside, and the weather delivered! First, Will beat Allen, then Will and I beat Allen and my Papa. Finally, Allen and Campbell defeated Carey and Keith. 

It was a ton of fun to be able to make these for my aunt and uncle, even if it took a bit more time and effort than we initially thought. The joy really is all in the giving! Thanks to everyone that helped us on this project!

Now, on to make one for Will and I!