Tailgating season is almost upon us! Here's how I painted a custom Iowa State Cyclone corn hole set.
Disclaimer - this post is about decorating a corn hole set, not building one. I had son #4 build it for me since I am not quite as handy with woodworking tools. So here is the corn hole set in it's natural state before I started decorating.
Prepping
I made sure I sanded everything down really well and then wiped down the set with a damp cloth to get rid of any sawdust. I paid special attention to the edges where #4 made his cuts.
Next I taped out with blue painter's tape the design I wanted to paint.
Starting with the red, I painted the bottom section, let it dry completely and then painted an second coat. I re-positioned the blue tape and then did the same process with the yellow.
End result of painting!
Applying the Polyurethane
At this point you could also paint a design on, however, I purchased a decal (more details later in this post) and apply the decal before a clear coat polyurethane would likely discolor the decal. I brought the boards inside since I was concerned about bugs getting stuck in there and having to move them in case it rained as it takes a while for this to dry. Also, I can control the temperature and humidity inside the house. Fortunately, we were gifted a pool table when we bought this house. We don't play a lot of pool, but it sure comes in handy for craft projects.
I applied several coats of polyurethane (four of them!) letting each coat dry in between.
Adding the decal
I found a great decal with Decals Plus on Amazon Marketplace. You can get this specific decal here, however, they have a lot of great NCAA decals. We are Cyclone fans, and we needed the set for the big Iowa State/Iowa game. The quality was great and the application was very easy. My advice is take your time with the placement because you really only get one shot at this. I used the blue tape, my clear ruler I have with my quilting supplies and the scraper I got with my Cricut machine to get the job done.
And here it is! Ready for some bags.
A Word on Bags
I wanted to make this set as official as possible so I did some research on the weight and size of the bags themselves. Corn hole derived its name from the fact that the bags are filled with corn. Some will tell you that if there is anything other than corn in those bags then it isn't really "corn hole".
I can also tell you that tiny little animals that get into your garage will find your corn filled bags delicious. And since this set was staying with my college student, I really didn't want to invite any extra roommates to his apartment.
I found NCAA material online and went to work sewing together the bags using plastic resin pellets, weighing them to make sure they were regulation size.
Super cute right??
Don't do this.
Corn hole bags need to be made out of duck cloth. After about 30 minutes of tossing these bags they kept splitting open at the seams. I ended up replacing them with solid red and yellow bags I found online.
GO STATE!
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