How to Make a DIY Board Game from an Upcycled Table

Here's how to make a folding draughts/checkers or chess DIY board game table with wood and vinyl using an old table and a Cricut Maker 3. Includes free template in Design Space below and video to follow along.

AD | This project is sponsored by Cricut.

If you're looking for more staying in entertainment with friends and family, I think this DIY draughts (checkers) or chess table is fun from start to finish. And guess what? I am completely new to making things with a Cricut machine.

With that in mind, it really is an easy upcycling project that keeps on giving! If you've never delved into some Cricut wood cutting projects, then this tutorial is for you!

Just grab an old table or flat surface as a table topper. Restore if needed. Then have fun cutting out my design in Cricut's Design Space, stick down your desired material, and start playing!

Cricut Travel Chess Set

Another idea is that you could use iron-on vinyl and press it onto fabric or bag to create a travel game where you can store your pieces!

DIY Board Game Table Plans

If you want to use your own Cricut to replicate my giant checkers/chess design, then you can access my designs here, which will open up in Design Space. *Feel free to personalise or resize how you see fit!

Note, I made mine with the Cricut Maker 3 and it is made up of 4 corners of a board game, then stuck down together to create a large board.

• Chess/checkers/draughts corner with 2 border sections*
• Font/words for "Win Some Lose Some"
• Counters cut into 2mm heavy chipboard & vinyl**

* = You'll need to cut 4 times
** = You'll need to cut 2 times in heavy chipboard and 1 sheet for each coloured vinyl as you may as well cover both sides!

Tools & Materials I Used

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Table Restoration Part

• Google: Jaques old/vintage playing cards table used for card/bridge/games table with green baize top
• Carbide scraper
• Orbital sander
• Wood stain & brush
• Rustoleum Chalky Finish Furniture Paint in Anthracite
• Mitre box & hand saw
• Resin to coat if you wish, or polyurethane varnish is less stressful(!)*

*= watch my video to see what I mean!

DIY Gaming Board Part (Sponsored Part)

Cricut cutting tools:

• Cricut Maker 3
• Fine point blade for card stock (which comes with the Maker 3)
• Cricut knife blade for heavy chipboard
• Smart card stock* - colours of your choice!
• 2mm heavy chipboard**
• Transfer tape
• Purple cutting mat
• Cricut essential tool set
• Smart permanent vinyl in black, white and silver

*= I recommend doing a test cut on a cereal box first
**= the Cricut Maker wood thickness as far as I know works with no more than 2mm

How to Make a Board Game at Home

First, you'll need a platform to stick my board game template on. You could find an old table to restore or any flat surface or a simple sheet of material as a board.

For my homemade game board restoration, in a nutshell, I:

• Ripped off the old not-so-green baize fabric
• Stripped back any finish on the wood with a carbide scraper
• Filled any chips in the wood and left them to dry before:
• Sanding the entire piece
• Used a wire brush to remove rust on the folding leg mechanisms
• Replaced the bowing support
• Glued and nailed down a new board top
• Stained the top
• Painted the frame with self-sealing chalk paint
• Added a PVA solution to the stained top to seal

Building Your Own Board Game Table

Firstly, if you're new to Design Space in Cricut, then don't panic like I usually do with new software. I'm not a computer whiz, but after watching How to Use Cricut Design Space video by Jennifer Maker, I was able to create this very simple checkers table design.

But, to save you a lot of work, you can instantly use my board game cut-out plans and select the material you want to cut. I opted for smart cardstock, but you could use vinyl instead.

Below, I'm doing my first test cut with a cut-up cereal box to get a feel if my continuous corner/border design will work once I've removed the right pieces. I couldn't see why not! 🙂

Applying Your Checkers Game to a Table

Firstly, you'll need to evenly mark where your board game is going to go. I added masking tape to the table so I could see my tape measure markings.

It will probably help to have all 4 corners ready to avoid being off by a couple of millimetres.

But honestly, it won't be visible as long as you focus primarily on getting your 64 checkers board squares to line up.

Applying with Transfer Tape

Now remove half of your squares in the sequence above. Money-saving tip: you could use a craft punch to cut out pretty patterns in the spares to add decorative detail around the whole board game.

Then add transfer tape on top of the card stock and burnish, so you can peel them away from the mat, then take them to the table.

Next, use a strip of masking tape as a "hinge flap" to line up your design to your measurements and burnish down on your surface, then very slowly pull away the transfer tape from the card stock*.

*read tips below

Tips for Using Transfer Tape with Card Stock

One of my main concerns is that cardstock is fiberous and that it may tear the card while using transfer tape. So naturally, I googled what could happen to preempt any mistakes.

I had a couple of minor scuffs on a test piece, and quickly learnt:

• Use normal transfer tape, not high-strength stuff
• Pull off very slowly
• Try to reuse transfer tape so it's less tacky over time
• I used transfer tape in combination with the scraping tool - my favourite method
• If you're really concerned, try using a hair dryer to warm up while pulling away

Continuing Your Cricut Board Game Cut Out

Once one corner is stuck down, it's time to do it for the next 3.

You might be wondering where one of my borders is missing for the yellow section. It must've been set aside as my design cuts the border separately, but all on the same sheet so you can tweak things as you wish.

Or, you could use no border, or replace it with an entirely different border in Design Space and use the weeding tool to remove the cutouts.

Cutting Words with the Maker 3

Before we tap into wood projects, one of the most obvious things to make with a Cricut Maker 3 is words from vinyl.

The space around my board game idea looked pretty bare. Initially, I was going to cut a border design from Design Space in vinyl to create a Cricut Maker stencil project.

But it just made more sense to me to cut some fun words choosing one of the many Cricut lettering fonts available and position around it instead. I went for:

• Win Some Lose Some
• Or you could read it as Some Win Some Lose

The method was exactly like before. Program the machine to cut. Weed the excess vinyl. Use transfer tape to apply it to your prepared surface. It was very straightforward!

Types of Cricut Vinyl

Note that there are lots of different different types of vinyl for Cricut. At the very least, as this was my first beginner Cricut project, I've discovered Permanent, Removable, and Iron-on Heat Transfer Vinyl often used for fabric.

For my slightly textured plywood, I found removable vinyl showed slight bumps. However, Permanent was thick, making it smooth.

As I planned to add resin (or varnish), I wasn't bothered about permanent or removable. You could use permanent vinyl for the checkers and not add varnish or resin but I'd recommend sealing the wood beforehand at least.

Cricut Wood Projects with Vinyl

OK! Now for some wood-cutting fun! I bought Cricut's knife blade and a pack of 2mm heavy chipboard as wanted to cut out Checkers counters.

They're simple discs, so I started designing a template to cut the most out of one sheet. Note, you could get away with cutting one sheet of discs, but 2mm is quite thin, so I decided to cut 2 lots and stuck 2 together with double-sided sticky tape.

Then used the same template to cut different coloured vinyl to stick on top of the discs. I was very impressed by how professionally manufactured these look.

Cricut Chess Pieces Idea

Obviously, chess pieces are a lot more complicated, so you may want to explore some balsa wood model cutting. Or, why not cut out some chess pieces in vinyl and layer them on top? Please let me know in the comments if you do!!

How Long Does it Take for the Cricut Maker 3 to Cut Wood?

I found my machine only needed 13 passes to cut all the way through as opposed to the machine's 24 passes. And each sheet of heavy chipboard only took about 20 minutes to cut.

*I'm not throwing away the cut-out sheet as I think there's a DIY Connect 4 byproduct here! Or a 25 collage Cricut picture frame idea.

Adding Mitred Trim to Frame Your Board Game

To start finishing my easy board game, I hand sawed some trim using a mitre block.

But before glueing it down, I painted the upper sections - not the sides that would be glued.

Because I planned on using resin later, I used a continuous bead of adhesive and sealant in one to prevent any leaks later.

Adding Resin or Varnish (With a Word of Warning!

There's lots of info online about how you should use pure silicone and leave it to cure to prevent resin leaks. I should have trusted my continuous bead because I found that silicone repelled my 2-to-1 resin.

I spent a lot of time trying to push resin towards the silicone and I ended up with gaps. And I now also have the odd dust particle, resulting in pitting. So I now have another step (part 2) to work on.

But... it's glossy. Waterproof. It would make the perfect checkers shots drinking game. And it's vibrant and cool if you don't mind me saying. I'm very impressed that I was able to design this from scratch in Design Space.

How to Make a Board Game with Cricut

Side note: it would absolutely make my day if you let me know in the comments section that you had fun making and using it. And, what game did you decide to create?

PLEASE tag me on Instagram with @thecarpenters_daughter!!!!! I've never begged so much... I'm just dying to see because I REALLY enjoyed making it 😂

And if I can get your brain thinking creatively and have a flavour of woodworking and DIY, I'll feel a little bit more complete 😊

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