Me and my big mouth

[mstang67chic]

husband and a friend, R, have kind of/sort of started their own business. They are now making custom cornhole boards. For those of you who don't know, cornhole is a game consisting of cloth bags filled with corn and two boards, set at an angle with a hole in them. You stand back a certain distance and pitch the bags, trying to make them in the hole.

So far, they have each made a set as a trial run. husband's is painted up for Notre Dame and R's is Ohio State. They have orders for at least 4 more sets and being the sweet, supportive and helpful wife that I am, offered to go to R's last night and help them with the current set they are working on.

Boy was that dumb.


This particular set is for a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Keep in mind they are still figuring things out as they go. On this set, they got STENCILS to paint the word Steelers on each board. R's wife M already had one traced out so I helped her fill in these 2 or 3 inch letters and we did the other one too. Not. Fun. Then, for the big logo, R had ordered these decals. They looked perfect! Big, round, white background and the colored diamond things of the Steelers logo with the word Steelers in black beside the diamonds. Uh huh. He peels a bit of the backing off to see how they will look (on a BLACK board) and the white background? That was the backing. The decals are CLEAR except for a circle of gray around the edge. Not normally a problem but remember the BLACK lettering and the BLACK background on the board? After some not so quiet muttering on R's part, he and husband made a run to get more paint. After the boys did the oh so difficult part of tracing the decal, M and I painted a big circle in white on each board. Again....not normally a problem. But, do you know just how fun it is to use a kids watercolor brush to edge these circles?????? Plus we were doing this at night in R's garage. I had to pick I don't know HOW many stupid bugs out of the paint and fix the "gouge" in the paint. We were using Kilz for this as it has good coverage but it still took a couple of coats to cover the black plus another partial coat to touch up some areas.

When we were FINALLY done, R's neighbor came over and did some trim edging with white auto pinstriping. The one board that was pretty much finished (they hadn't done the stripping around the hole yet) looked pretty good by the time we left but OMG. That was SUCH a PITA.

And I offered to help out with MORE of these $%%Y&*()( things?????


http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj161/mstang67chic/cornholesteelers.jpg

(That would be R peeking through the hole)

Keep in mind, I took this with my phone and the lights were reflecting. Plus, if you saw it in person, you don't really want to look too close at the stenciling of the Steelers. *snort*

 

[Hound dog]

Wow. That turned out amazing!

I hope the cost of paint, decals, stensils, ect was figured into the cost. How many of these did you agree to do??

I don't think I'd get in to that much. I can paint a room........and enjoy it when I'm done. But that's different.

I'd imagine you'll all get better with each one you do. Figuring out how to do the decals and match it to the paint and such. You'll probably get faster too. Do they sell brushes for acrylic paint at the hardware store? If not you'll probably want to go to someplace like Michael's or Hobby Lobby and pick up one. I used to have issues getting watercolor onto paper with a kids watercolor set brush, I can't imagine trying to use it to apply acrylic paint.

You do get a cut of the profit, right?

 

[mstang67chic]

I guess R did up a spreadsheet for expenses and profits. He's figured up the cost of everything normally needed but this one was a real pain. Generally they are pretty basic. Normally two colors of paint, a couple of decals and the wood, putty and screws are all that's needed. husband's Notre Dame boards cost a bit more because the original decals he ordered weren't big enough but usually they are pretty straightforward. I think they just need to find a good source for the decals and ....hmmm....maybe some stick on letters instead of decals!!!!

You do get a cut of the profit, right?

They are thinking of marking each board they make with the following:

Boards by Lords Of Leisure

 

[Abbey]

Those things were all over Northern IL University when I stayed with my daughter. It's a very popular game. They'll sell a ton of them!! Very good internet item...it's unique, fun and customized.

Abbey

 

[mstang67chic]

I don't think they are going to sell them over the internet. These things are made with 2x4's and good plywood. They weigh a ton! LOL

 

[DaisyFace]

Mstang--

Just a word of caution from a legal/licensing standpoint....

If the NFL gets wind that you are selling "unofficial" products with team logos on them, you can be prosecuted for copyright and trademark infringement.

Why not do it right and BUY the rights to license these products? The NFL will then supply you with the correct logos and adhesive labels to use AND you will be able to openly advertise that you are selling "official" NFL team game boards?

--DaisyF

 

[flutterby]

A week ago, I didn't know what cornhole was. This is now the 3rd time it has come up. Weird, huh?

Nice looking board. Glad you had so much fun.

 

[gcvmom]

You could also make an Economy Board... and put dollar signs on the corn bags...

Or maybe that's a budget deficit board... hmmmm. Or Military Spending...

The options are endless.

Hey, if it keeps the Bored Lords of Leisure off the streets and out of your hair, why not?

 

[Abbey]

Very true, Daisy. Hadn't thought about that. I know on Packer game days we had to wear Packer jerseys with a team member's name on it. They were ordered to stop. So now they still wear the colored jersey but has the name of the store in place of the player's name. Picky, picky, picky.

Abbey

 

[Andy]

Bean Bag (aka cornhole) toss is becoming more popular around here. I have to be careful when I go from my office out into the unit when leaving work in the afternoon because the unit's beanbag toss game is right at that door. Careful that I don't get hit with a bag and careful that a patient doesn't try to get out the door when I leave.

Putting team names on the boards is an awesome idea! Also, I think you can buy the bags by themselves through Oriental Trading or a school supply store/catalog.

I was very surprised a few months ago to see a "Bean Bag Toss Contest" being promoted as our church's fellowship activity for the month. I wasn't able to make it to that event though.

 

[DammitJanet]

Daisy is right about the NFL licensing deal. What you can do is print up directions to make these and buy the decals from NFL.com and sell them on Ebay and make money. That way there is no problem with shipping costs and no problem with the licensing deal. NFL already has approved their decals...lol.

 

[susiestar]

If you are sewing the bags you could buy fabric with the team logo printed on it already and then call that version (team logo on board and on the bags) the "deluxe" package.

I think these could sell very well at craft fairs, county fairs, etc.

It would make a cute gift for my nephew who is still in college.

 

[Hound dog]

I know they're uber popular around here and nowhere near as fancy as you're doing. And I think they go for anywhere from 35-50 dollars a pop.

So far the game hasn't interested me though.

Oh, and if you do request the NFL's permission.....tag a bit on the price for the "official version" sort of deal.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

These are popular here too. Surprised me when I first saw it. Especially that the late teens early 20's crowd is really into it.

beth