Every year for Christmas we encourage our children to make gifts for their gift giving needs. It’s really fun to see what each one comes up with. This year Gabriel made cribbage boards for each family in our extended family – and us, of course.
I’m going to share how he made the boards in this post but the template won’t be same for you since your board will be shaped differently, I’m sure. However, there are templates, game making instructions, and game playing instructions in the Handmade Wooden Games ebook.
He started with a cedar log that was actually cut down when he did his very first bee removal. He cut 2″ slabs from the log and removed the outer bark.
He then sanded it with a hand sander and waxed it with some beeswax using a drill and a polishing pad for a drill.
For the pegs, Gabriel found some vintage nut pickers on ebay and then cut them down to size using his dremel.
ok, Here’s the tricky part. There needs to be a total of 120 holes in 2 lines going around the board. Gabriel traced the board and then folded the paper into quadrants. Then he put 30 dots in each quadrant. Here’s a photo of his pattern, of course, yours will look different since the shape of your log will be different.
Now you need to mark each hole in the wood. There are several ways you can do this, you can take the pattern tot he wood and just drill through the paper. Or you can put some transfer paper down first and then the pattern. Then using a pencil color each dot and the transfer paper will transfer the dot to the wood. We had transfer paper left over from our monogrammed mug project so that’s Gabriel used. If we hadn’t, he would have just drilled through the paper.
Drill the holes using a drill press or hand drill. Lightly sand and wax.
You can get printable game instructions here.
If you’re giving these as a gift, you might want to make fabric bags to put them in.
What are some of your favorite family games? Feel free to leave links to your game posts in the comments.
Abbi
Friday 10th of February 2017
Those are very pretty!
Jody
Saturday 29th of November 2014
My father has passed on his love of cribbage to me and my sons. I will have to show my husband this project. I think it would be a great one for my children!
Thank you.
Angi Schneider
Tuesday 2nd of December 2014
What a fun heritage. Carl's parents introduced me to cribbage and I always think of them when we play. If you guys make some, I'd love to see pictures.
Leisa at SuttonsDaze
Saturday 8th of February 2014
Absolutely love it! I truly admire his creativity. I have been wanting to make my own board for some time now. I will be scoping out scrap wood this weekend now.
Angi Schneider
Saturday 8th of February 2014
oh, Thank you Leisa! I hope you find just the right piece of wood for your project.
daisy
Wednesday 5th of February 2014
Don't cha just love a homemade gift? It's beautiful and will give family members so much pleasure.
Angi Schneider
Thursday 6th of February 2014
We do love homemade gifts around here. Thanks so much for your kind words, Daisy.
Patty
Thursday 30th of January 2014
I love this! The wood is so pretty and will be treasured by everyone who received the game.
Angi Schneider
Thursday 30th of January 2014
awww, Thanks, Patty. When he decided to make them I made sure he knew that's what I wanted, too.