Make a Mini Tabletop Game!

Summers growing up, my family would all meet up in Montana at our 1927 cabin on Hebgan Lake. There’s no TV there, so my Grammie encouraged us to spend the entire day outside playing (we thought it was for our own good but she just wanted the quiet so she could read her book in peace). We always had some kind of game to play outside or activity – my favorite was when we would search around the grounds of the cabin to find all our old horseshoes and play a game together… time had worn a nice path between the two points and adults would play while drinking beers and complaining about the noise other cabins would be making near by. But sadly I always have to wait for the summers to get back to my game of horseshoes!

As a result… Later, I grew to love the game of Cornhole: which dates back to the 14 hundreds (WHO KNEW?!) and, unlike Horseshoe… it’s portable! Tho, officially you have have enough room to place regulation sized boards 21′ apart… you can still pack a cornhole game in the back of a car & pretty much take it anywhere. What’s Cornhole? Two Platforms with a single hole cut into each of them are positioned 21′ apart. Teams take turns tossing corn-filled bags into the holes.

There are some seriously official rules but we usually toss until each team has no more remaining bags to toss….normally, teams get 4 tosses (in my rules). Tho – us city kids in San Francisco – well, even when we do have cars, we don’t want to lug anything around that can’t be packed into our handmade Alite backpack. So, I worked with the team over at Joey The Cat to design an even MORE portable version of this classic game. at only 5″x 10″ – you’ll clearly have room for this mini game in your bag and you’re massively expensive studio apartment.

Download the PDF Blue Print Attached Here. I used Foam core for mine & your standard X-acto knife for cutting – but you could also build this out of MDF or your favorite hard wood for something more long lasting. Tip! You don’t want to attack your foam core with your knife… score slowly & don’t push down too hard or you’ll end up with crunchy and jacked-up edges. Patience my dear DIY friend.

If you fudge your edges a bit when cutting… decorate your mini-cornhole platform with construction paper… maybe even make yourself a little bandaid and shlap that right on there.

The best fabric for your bags would be something that glides along the surface of your platform easily. Consider using something smooth & silky. A soft cotton ply would work nicely. Anything too slick will fly too far & anything too rough to push it’s way all the way to scoring.Your corn bags are so small that using corn in the center of your bag will make it too lumpy. For mine, I used quinoa to give the bag some weight but also keeps the lumps at bay.