Wine Cork Chess Set

This might be a crazy idea.... I decided to make a homemade Wine Cork Chess set for my daughter's boyfriend for Christmas.

SUPPLIES:

• Wood chess board - I found mine at the local thrift store for $2.98.
• Wine Corks - I bought wine corks on ebay. The man I purchased the corks from was kind enough to make sure I had 16 of the same for the pawns, 4 of the same for the knights, etc. (He probably thought I was crazy for sure! )
• Wood disks - I bought these at Michaels. You need 32.
• Acrylic paint - Black, Bordeaux Wine, and I mixed up a tan that matched the cork color.
• Chess piece graphics - See below.
• Modge Podge
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

First I decided which Wine corks were going to be each piece:

2 Kings - Vignobles Ducourt Wine (it has a crown on it)

2 Queens - High Note (just thought it worked...)

4 Bishops - Bogle (for the B)

4 Knights - Cycles Gladiator (Gladiators are like Knights, right?)

4 Rooks - Rabbit Ridge (for the R)

16 Pawns - Geyser Peak (for the P)

1. I found symbols for the pieces on google images. I figured out the size of the tops of the corks and printed them out on cream colored paper. I cut them all out.

2. I painted the bottom wood disks, 16 Bordeaux Wine and 16 Black.

3. I painted the tops of 16 corks with Bordeaux Wine and 16 with a tan that matched the corks.

4. I hot glued the corks to the wooden disks.

5. I modge podged each symbol onto each piece. I put the black symbols on the corks painted tan with the black wooden disks. I put the cream symbols on the corks painted wine color with the wine colored disks.

To store them I used a wooden box, sort of like a large recipe file box I had in the closet!

That's it! I will let you know what he thinks of his gift after Christmas.

Enjoy!