More Gifty Crafting

Dear Liza,

While Cousin Kestrel loves Fairies and Goblincore, 12 year old Cousin Jasper is a life-long Dungeons and Dragons player. Auntie Katie suggested I make him a “battle board”, which is a way of keeping track of what your characters are doing during the game.

Continuing my habit of ”using what you have”, I pulled our old, unused Trivial Pursuit game out of the closet. Since we only ever use the cards, I decided the board and box would be useful for Jasper’s present.

Auntie Bridgett got me started by giving everything we were going to paint a nice layer of gesso.

I mixed some leftover indoor acrylic housepaint with a bit of black and painted the battle surface, then added a bit more black and made dark speckles with a crinkled up potato bag.

A little more black gave me a third color and made it nice and rocky looking.

I liked it so much, I painted the lid of the box and the little boxes inside, as well.
The little boxes are useful for holding the weird dice, the character pieces, and whatever else you need.

But to make everything good for playing, it needed a grid pattern, which can determine distances, battle plans and magical spells in the game. I borrowed Auntie Bridgett’s white Posca marker and spent most of Saturday drawing really ……careful …… lines.

I liked it! I added a little bit of green speckles and blobs to look like moss on the vertical surfaces ( we are in Portland, after all).

And when the whole thing was dry, I folded it up. The back side of the new battle board still has the original surface and the “Trivial Pursuit” logo, which I decided to leave just as it was. I like things to be able to tell their own story.

Jasper has the cool dice and character sheets, and in a different package is his new Player’s Guide with all the rules. I just need to wrap these up and wait until Christmas.

I’m feeling like a very successful crafter!

Love,

Grandma Judy