Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Lovopoly...Inspiration: Monopoly

I just finished my Valentine's Day present...yes it's 14 days late, but in a long distance relationship you are able to take your time on these things. I was inspired by the game Monopoly--a favorite game of my boyfriend. I thought about buying him the Lovopoly game online, but I scratched that really fast, and instead decided to make my own. I went out to thrift stores looking for an old Monopoly game set, and couldn't find one, so instead I hit up Target and bought their $11 game.
  1. I took it home and painted the box and the board with gesso.
  2. Then I mixed up some mint green acrylic paint (just the $.59 a bottle kind from JoAnne's)
  3. I then painted the board and replaced all the squares with locations that we've been to or that are special to us (our universities, Bahamas, Chicago, Costa Rica, favorite restaurants--Taco Bell, Don Pablos, etc.) We love renting movies so I made the Utilities squares, "Rental Facilities" (RedBox, and the Library). For the Railroads, I made them: Megabus, Taxi, Cruise, and Teleport. Instead of Jail, I used "Stuck in Traffic" and instead of Free Parking, I used "Spring Break".
  4. Then I went in to Microsoft Publisher and made the Chance and Community Chest cards (which I changed to "Get Lucky" and "Life's Surprises"). I downloaded the fonts that are on the original game cards, which really added to the whole effect.
  5. I then went into Publisher and put our faces in the money. You could just as easily do this with Photoshop, and in fact I'm sure it would be easier. Then I printed it all out on colored paper and used my paper cutter to cut it all up. I made 30 gold-$500, 30 beige-$100, 30 blue-$50, 50 green-$20, 40 yellow-$10, 40 pink- $5, and 40 white-$1. 
  6. I also used Publisher to make the new title deed cards to match the squares on the board. I just used  the same rent amount and hotel and house costs...it was just easier that way.
  7. I went to the store and found some little toys called squinkeys or something like that...I bought the Aladdin ones and made the Aladdin and Jasmine our pieces that we can play with (we dressed up as Aladdin and Jasmine for Halloween)
  8. I painted the box and decorated it with a silhouette of the Chicago skyline and the Taj Mahal, and put pictures of us above the title. 
  9. I sprayed it with a clear coat, gloss protectant and let it dry.
  10. Wrapped it up and will give it to him tomorrow! :)
Hope you can be inspired to make your own Lovopoly board!