How to make a custom/artisanal boardgame?

One technique that requires a bit of practice but could give a nice result for you would be transfering a color laser copy into the wood using paint thinner.

(You will like to first attempt this on a piece of paper a few times, until you feel you've mastered the technique, and then maybe give it a try on a spare piece of plywood before you go for it for real)

First you print a mirrored laser color copy of the design you want to transfer. Then you damp the wood with paint thinner, place the laser copy on it (printed face down, touching the plywood), damp the paper with pant thinner, and rub the whole surface with the back of a spoon, being extremely careful not to move the paper during the whole process, and not to miss rubbing every area of it. You should do this quick, as paint thinner evaporates quickly and you need to do this while the tonner is still soft.

Be careful with how much thinner you use: too little and the image won't transfer adequately, too much and the image will transfer, but get all blurred.

Another good option, now that I think of it, would be decoupage. Just google for decoupage and you'll find lots of step-by-step guides. It's a bit more complex than the paint thinner technique, but the image quality will be much better, and it's more historically sound, if you're looking for an old fashion look.

Good luck,

Seo

For the board, another option is a fine art print shop where they'll often have an inkjet printer that can print on any stiff material, including hardbacked canvas. You just supply the original for scanning or a file to be printed.

I suggest two methods for cards, the first easier to find materials for.

Print the cards back onto front on 110# cardstock. Laminate with a cold laminator like the Xyron 900 (pretty cheap to buy, or many scrapbooking stores will let you use theirs for a fee). Trim the cards all the way down (the cold lamination lets you cut right through the laminate and paper). Optionally use a corner rounder punch (available at craft stores) to round the corners. These cards will shuffle like regular cards, are roughly the same thickness, and last ages and ages. They also look very good, though they're glossier than professionally-printed cards and don't have that nice linen finish. (I did experiment once with spraying the laminated cards with acrylic Matte Finish, and while the resulting cards did look more like professional cards, the overall effect was uneven.)

For truly professional-looking cards if you have a laser or inkjet printer with a very straight-through paper path that can take even heavier stock (my HP Color LaserJet 4500 can do this) AND you can find actual playing card stock, you can print and trim on the real deal. You must spray them with an acrylic spray like Crystal Clear to get the toner to stick through lots of shuffling and to kind of "embed" itself in the linen-finish "pits." These are indistinguishable from professional cards, but the printer has to be just right and the paper is really hard to find in reasonable quantities (I lucked out once but it was a limited source and they have no more). With good corner rounding (small diameter), they're stunning. I made some as a gift once and you'd never have known they weren't professionally-printed.

-- Matthew