copycraft: scrabble coasters

There was a time when I would have considered myself a formidable Scrabble opponent. I had this English teacher in 10th grade that would whip out her 12 or so Scrabble sets a few times a year and we'd all play instead of reading from whatever the archaic assigned novel was. And I'm here to tell you, when it came to Scrabble days, I whooped butt. I mean like, I seriously thought that Scrabble was my calling in life.

Now I realize that this is coming off a little full of myself (a substantial departure from my typical, and preferred  self-deprecating humor.) However, I find it important to mention just how hot to trot (yep, I just used that phrase) I thought I was because it proves more entertaining later in the story.

Enter one Jason Sadler.

When Jason and I first started dating, I can remember one specific night that we had gone out on a dinner date and returned back to his house to hang out. We sat on the couch and I asked him what he wanted to do, suggesting maybe a movie. To my surprise, instead he asked if I wanted to take him on in Scrabble.

Now, all you women out there, let me take you through what was going on in my head. My brain: "Scrabble? Why yes... I'd love to play a game where I can be playfully competitive while also demonstrating my expansive vocabulary. I must warn you though, I suspect that after I beat you, you'll simultaneously respect me for my intelligence and find yourself irresistibly attracted to me for my ability to challenge you on an intellectual level. Just know that you've been warned..." 

I'm just saying, this is legitimately what I thought. Okay, so maybe I didn't think this was my shot to win him forever, but at the very least I thought it was my chance to impress him. I mean, this was my calling. So you can imagine what happened next, right?

He kicked my ass.

And pretty much has been kicking my ass every time we've played since. Unknown to me, apparently it's been a family tradition for him since he was like five. His mom has been playing with him since he could read, and the whole family is seriously a group of Scrabble savants. They know all the two and three letter words, and every time I try to call Jason on one of his ridiculous plays, he retorts by spouting off the definition of the obscure word he's playing verbatim. (In case you were wondering, yes, "ixia" is a word, and it's a plant native to South Africa. And so is "qaid." One of the few q-letter words without a "u" in it. It's an alternate spelling for "caid." Which is a bird. Seriously, people, he could go on for days!)

Anyway, the point is that I thought I loved Scrabble, but I was wrong. The Sadlers LOVE Scrabble, and especially Jason. I've been wanting to make some Scrabble coasters for him forever, and this weekend I finally got the chance. Here's my inspiration photo:

It's an extremely simple project, and if you're a board game fan, I definitely recommend some version on this project. We bought two Scrabble sets for $10 each, and decided to do one set with letters and one set using the board itself. (Big shoutout to Kim for helping me cut the game board. Lord knows with my clumsy ways I could have easily hurt myself!)

With not alot of supplies, one might think
I'd keep the table relatively clean...

Quick cameo by Kim's hands. FYI, cutting the game board
is probably the hardest part of this craft.

For the tiled ones I simply hot-glued the tiles onto squares we pre-cut out of the game board. For the board ones, I hot glued them on top of some cork squares to give it some sturdiness. For both, I simply painted a layer of Paper Glaze over and it gives it a protective coat while also giving it a kind of shiny, finished look. I especially love the finish on the board coasters because they almost look like ceramic tiles.

We picked out our own letters clearly.

This is the one we did with a little space in between the letters.
 Looks less "perfect" but lays flatter. 

Ohhhh.... Shiny......

They look like little tiles. Love em! 

Two sets of four each!

I think the game board coasters are especially cute as a gift for someone using whatever their favorite board game is. My only recommendation is that you glue the letters down with a little space in between because we tried it both ways -- both with space and without -- and the ones without kind of bowed up a little bit once the glaze dried.

Hope you guys like them, and feel free to comment below with your favorite board game, or maybe your favorite obscure Scrabble word!

By the way, one would think I couldn't make a mess.
And one would be wrong.