Indoor Play Board - Part Four - Buildings

Now it is time to add the buildings to your play board. You may decide to add buildings you already have from other play sets, which is a great option and gives you much more detail, or you can make your own buildings.

My grandson wanted a castle, and after looking all over town for a week and not finding one, we decided to build our own. To quote my grandson, this is the "best part of the play board"!

Castle

4 - 12"x12"x1" pieces of Styrofoam

Unlimited supply of Elmer's glue

1 can spray adhesive

4 bags of small gravel - aquarium

Exacto Knife

Using one piece of the Styrofoam, draw the front of your castle. Using an Exacto knife cut out the castle. For this I would work in a different area, placing a large plastic bag over the work area. This is so that you can collect any gravel that falls off. Using a very liberal amount of Elmer's glue, cover the entire piece of Styrofoam. After all of the Styrofoam is covered, cover the entire thing with the gravel. Press very firmly so that all of the gravel is pressed into the glue. You will need to leave this for a day or two, lying flat, so that the glue will dry and the grave will not fall off. Once it is dry, stand it up, gently running your hands across the gravel, brush off any loose pieces. Once this is done, in a very well ventilated area, spray the surface with the spray adhesive, and lay flat again for another 24 hours. Do the same thing for the two sides. The castle needs to be placed on the edge of the board, with the outside wall open so that they can play inside the building. I purchased two pieces of floor tile that look like rough stone and glued them in the center of the castle courtyard. I covered the board that was showing around the edges with moss and "planted" a tree in the center of the courtyard. I cheated here, because it was a castle courtyard, I left the tree in the little granite looking pot and just set it in the middle. It looks perfect.