North Carolina State Flag Custom Cornhole Boards

Show your state pride by painting custom cornhole boards featuring the North Carolina State flag. These make a great housewarming, graduation or Father’s Day gift. And they’re so fun to take tailgating!

I received compensation to complete this project using FrogTape painter’s tape products. All opinions, projects and ideas are based on my own experience. This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

In the summer, when days are long and the sun doesn’t set until late, our family loves spending evenings outdoors playing backyard games.

Cornhole is our latest obsession since I finished these stained custom cornhole boards featuring the North Carolina state flag.

I am so pleased with how they turned out, especially since it took me about two years to settle on a design for the boards! (You can’t rush DIY!)

I’m also excited to be sharing the step-by-step tutorial for this project, so you can make your own stained custom cornhole boards. I’ve partnered four other bloggers to bring you some awesome summertime and outdoor projects using FrogTape. Be sure to visit the links at the end of this post to see how my friends used FrogTape to create projects for their homes, porches and yards.

Back to my project…

I bought the plain cornhole boards from Cornhole.com as a Father’s Day gift for my husband a few years ago, and I always intended to paint them for him. We noodled over possible designs for a long time before settling on the state flag.

It’s the perfect choice for a family of native North Carolinians!

If you live in North Carolina, you need these state flag #cornhole boards at your next #tailgate celebration. Click To Tweet

Supplies for Custom Cornhole Boards

You can build your own cornhole boards or order plain, wooden ones like I did.

For this project, you’ll also need:

• FrogTape Multi-Surface painter’s tape
• tape measure
• straight edge
• pencil
• DecoArt Color Stain in red, navy and white
• foam paintbrushes
• exterior topcoat
• Vinyl flag stencil decal (I made mine with my Cricut)

Instructions for N.C. State Flag Cornhole Game

Using a tape measure and a straight edge, mark off the lines for the North Carolina flag.

The red and white strips are each 12 inches wide. The blue end panel is 16 inches wide.

Once you’ve drawn your lines, apply FrogTape along the lines and to the perimeter of the boards.

I knew I wanted to paint the red stripe first, so I put a piece of FrogTape in the other stripe to remind myself not to paint there!

I’ve used FrogTape on lots of walls and furniture projects, and I’m always impressed with the super-sharp paint lines I get. For this project, I wanted to use colored stain so you could still see the wood grain on the cornhole boards. I was a bit worried that the thinner stain would bleed under the painter’s tape, so I made a test board before tackling my project.

FrogTape did not disappoint. No bleeding at all!

When you apply the FrogTape to the surface you’re painting or staining, be sure to press along the edges of the tape to make sure there are no gaps. Another great tip, from the DIY duo at Chris Loves Julia, is to run a damp rag along the FrogTape to activate the adhesive. Worked like a charm, even using stain!

Try not to paint into the tape, as that could push some of the stain or paint beneath the FrogTape. I used a foam brush and started each stroke at the tape, working toward the edge of the cornhole board.

I use two coats of the red stain to get the coverage I wanted for my North Carolina state flag cornhole board design. With the DecoArt Color Stain, it’s not necessary to wipe off the excess like you do with traditional stains. You just apply it like you apply paint.

Once you’ve applied the final coat of stain, I recommend letting it dry for a just few minutes before removing the FrogTape, pulling gently at an angle.

I allowed each color of stain (not each coat) to cure overnight before tackling the next color. That way, I could use the multi-surface green FrogTape for the whole project. If you can’t wait 24 hours between coats, you can use yellow FrogTape for delicate or freshly painted surfaces.

I had absolutely no issues with the stain lifting when I applied FrogTape on top of it to move onto the next stripe on the flag.

After I’d painted the red and white stripes on the flag, it was time to work on the other section.

To add the words to the blue field on the flag, I had to make a vinyl stencil mask with my Cricut. You can get the design here.

Because I couldn’t use FrogTape for this part of the project, I knew there was a risk of stain bleeding under the stencil and that the lines wouldn’t be as sharp.I used a small foam brush and light coats to minimize bleeding around the letters.

You’ll see I got some bleeding around the points of the star. However, I was able to sharpen those lines using FrogTape when I added the white stain to the star.

In the photo above, you can also see that I left some of the vinyl stencil on the cornhole boards while the stain dried. Don’t try to remove the tiny pieces from the center of the letters and numbers while the stain is still wet, or you’ll smudge the design.

If you do happen to get some bleed-through when using the stencil, I recommend dipping a cotton swab in acetone nail polish remover and removing as much as you can that way. You can also sand away any smudges, but you might have to touch up the stain in spots.

Before painting the star white, I taped around it with FrogTape and sanded where the stencil bled. Then I followed with three coats of white DecoArt Color Stain.

I wanted to show you a closeup of how sharp my stain lines were when using the FrogTape.

To finish and protect my custom cornhole boards DIY, I added a satin exterior topcoat to the stained surface, as well as the raw wood.

I bought a set of navy and red cornhole bags to coordinate with our North Carolina state flag stained cornhole boards.

We’ve already had so much playing cornhole, even though the kid always seems to win!

If you live in North Carolina or have ties to my home state, I hope you’ll consider painting your own state flag cornhole boards. If you live elsewhere, you can easily adapt this tutorial for your state’s flag, especially if the design is mostly linear or geometric.

Be sure to pin this project so you can find it when you’re ready to make your own custom cornhole boards or if you need tips for using and creating with FrogTape.

Check out all these amazing summertime & outdoor projects you can make with @frogtape. Creative ideas from @attagirlsays @mrsmajorhoff @huntandhost @robbrestyle & @skinglavenderlnClick To Tweet

Don’t forget to visit my friends and check out their FrogTape projects:

Neutral American Flag DIY Art

Canvas Art with Frogtape

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