Coach's Thank You

My daughter's basketball season ended about a month ago, but just recently was their end of the season party in which we presented the Coach and Assistant Coach with a small token of our gratitude.  While the gifts themselves were nothing much (I collected money and purchased a variety of gift cards I thought they would enjoy) I did take some time creating a couple of things.

First, after the girls' league tournament, Sassy and I came up with this as we wanted to give "Coach" something, since the regular season was over (the state tournament was still to come).  I headed to the gas station, and picked out a bunch of candy bars I thought would work perfectly as words in a poem.  I'm sure many of you have seen these around, but this is what we came up with:

I've actually done this before (for a father's day gift) where I wrote the "poem" out and  taped the candy bars directly in place.  But for this one, I printed out the poem with candy bar images, then tied ribbon onto the candy bars and put it all into a gift bag ~ much easier to carry around a basketball tournament!


Then, for their "real" gifts, I made a couple of Thank You cards and had all of the families sign them.
The cards were a hit, by the parents and Coach's alike.

Here is the one I made for the Assistant Coach:

Outside:

Inside:

And the one for the Head Coach:

Outside:

Inside:

They were a hit, and could easily be revamped for different sports.

 Just a side note.  I know most coaches do not expect Thank You gifts.  I do however know how much time coaches put into the team.  My husband has coached my Daughter's and Son's teams (softball for her and basketball for him) for many years.  He doesn't just show up for practice or games.  He is at home in the evenings, after his full time job, organizing practices ~ always looking for new ideas ~ or ways he can help the team or individual players learn more and become their best.  Organizing line-ups for games and dealing with the last minute "no shows".  Setting up practice locations, signing up for tournaments, sending out emails, "dealing" with parents, giving rides to those who need help getting to/from practices and games.  So while I say thank you gifts are not expected.  I do hope you all are telling your coaches "Thank You"  and just so you know ~ words are just fine!  Just let them know you appreciate the time and effort they are putting in!

Last Minute Valentine Idea

One of Smiley's favorite treats is popcorn.  And, I'm certain she will get plenty of candy at her preschool Valentine's day party, so we decided popcorn would be a fun valentine to hand out to her friends.

Here's how we turned some ordinary microwave popcorn into some cute valentines:

To make them exactly like we did, you will need:

White Paper
Red cardstock paper
Microwave popcorn
Blank Address Labels
Stickers

This is what I did to prepare for assembly:

First, I created a little label wishing her friends a Happy Valentine's Day

I cut them out using my handy 2 1/2" circle punch, but a scissors would work just fine.

I also designed a simple "From" label, using the blank address labels.  Since her class doesn't write individual names on each valentine, on the address labels, I designed it to say "Your Friend, ", Then Alayna wrote her name on each one.

Finally, I cut each 8 1/2" x 11" piece of red cardstock in half.

Now to assemble:

First we wrapped the red cardstock around the popcorn and secured it in place using the "Your Friend" address label.

Then we glued the "Just Poppin' in to say, Have a happy Valentine's Day" label on the front.

Finally, Smiley added a heart sticker to the back of each one under the address label.

Voila ~ easy peasy valentines for all of her preschool friends!

Valentine Pom Pom Wreath

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I thought I would repost a craft Sassy and I worked on together a couple years ago.  She just requested I get it hung up for this Valentine's day :)

I don't usually decorate for Valentines day. I'm not the type of person who feels the need to decorate for every holiday.  However, I've seen so many cute v-day wreaths out in blog land recently and Sassy has been bugging me to let her decorate.  So, I regressed back to my days in grade school.  Art class to be exact.  The assignment was to make a Christmas wreath.  My mom helped me come up with the idea to make a pom pom wreath.  I made it with green yarn and adorned it with red bows.

Today I bring you our (Sassy and myself) Valentines Day version.

Supplies:

Foam heart shaped wreath

and

Yarn ~ as many or as few colors as you desire 

(Sassy chose a deep red, pink and white)

Directions:

1.  Start by making your pom poms.  To do this we wrapped the yarn around our fingers ~ Sassy used 4 fingers, I used 3.  When you wrap the yarn around your fingers, make sure you keep it loose ~ not slip off your hand loose, but make sure you are not going to cut blood supply off to your fingers.  We went around our fingers about 85 times.

2.  Slip the yarn off of your hand.  Cut a piece of yarn long enough (around 6" should do) to tie your wrapped yarn together and to tie the finished pom pom to the wreath.  Now center your wrapped yarn over the new piece you cut ~ make sure it is centered on top and bottom, then tie in a double knot.

3.  You should now have a bunch of little loops.  Cut all of these down the center.  Be careful not to cut the piece of yarn you tied with ~ Sassy did this soooo many times ~ easy to fix, just tedious.  But it did make us giggle a lot!  When you are done, you should have a pom pom in need of a haircut.

4.  Trim up your pom pom and go on to the next.

5.  Once your pom poms are made, you can tie them onto your heart form.  Finally, trim up all the extra string on the back

Voila ~ a fun valentine wreath ~ perfect to hang on Sassy's bedroom door.

Someday Crafts

Yarn Eggs ~ take 2

The kids and I made Yarn Eggs last year before Easter.

You can check that post out here.

I hadn't planned on making them again this year, but Sassy was concerned that we didn't have any Easter decorations up.  So, one day while Sassy and Action were at school and Smiley was down for a nap, I set out to make some small yarn eggs.

I used:

Water Balloons (I wanted smaller eggs than last year)

Bright colored Embroidery Floss (that I took out of a friendship bracelet making kit)

Glue 

and

Water

First I watered down my glue and blew up my balloons.

Then I took my embroidery floss, dipped it into the watered down glue and wrapped, wrapped and wrapped it around my balloons.

 I laid them out to dry.

When they were dry, using my finger, I loosened the floss from the balloon.  

Then I popped the balloon and pulled it out

Voila, cute little Easter Eggs.

And Sassy feels so much better now that we have some Easter decorations up.

Oh, and that fabulous framed Easter Subway Art you see, 

you can get that here courtesy of Chessa from Antsi-Pants

Centerpieces ~ All 24 of them

If you read my blog, you already know that I was co-chair of a fundraiser.  If you don't, I was :) (you can click here or here to see/here more)

Anyway, I had ordered some centerpieces online,  for our event.  After I ordered all 24 of them (for a FABULOUS price)  I received an order confirmation and everything seemed good to go.  That is until I received a phone call a week and a half later (about the day I expected them to arrive) from the company telling me they no longer had them in stock.

UMMMM WHAT!!!!!!!  

This was about 3 weeks before our event.  Not much time to 1. find anything substantial for a super price (we had about $0 to work with, and the ones I had ordered were 12" tall, Hollywood themed fountains for .96¢ each) and 2. order them and get them delivered in time.

What's a girl to do?

Enter smallish boxes (think kid's shoe boxes, kleenex boxes and girl scout cookie boxes)

A few trips to the Dollar Store
Spray Paint
and
GLITTER

(DISCLAIMER ~ I did a poor job taking pictures of the process, 

as I was trying to get them finished as quickly as possible)

I started by cutting holes into the bottoms of the boxes if they didn't already have holes (kleenex boxes) or were already open (shoe boxes).

Then I wrapped each box with wrapping paper  ~ since our theme was Hollywood, I used gold, silver and black (8 boxes of each color)

Once the box was wrapped, using a small blade, I cut a small  ✳ on the top of the box  (you'll see why in a bit)

Once all my boxes had holes in the bottom, were wrapped and a small star cut in the top, it was time to accessorize them.

Here's what I used:

feathers
black plastic table cloths (clearance at target ~ otherwise I was going to use black tissue paper and I think the table cloths ended up working better!)
gold and silver mylar tissue paper
red cellophane
star garland
decorative grass (it did have some substance to it)
spray paint
glitter
black, gold and silver stars (some I cut out of card stock, some I purchased) glued onto the bamboo skewers painted in the same color
Silver garland
Black, gold and silver pipe cleaners

First I spray painted the grass ~ I painted some silver, some gold, and some black.  When the spray paint was wet, I sprinkled them like crazy with glitter.

Then, I cut the tissue paper, table cloths, and cellophane into squares (or rectangles, whatever ). For each  box, I used about 4 squares and alternated the colors.  Once I layered them, I grabbed the pile by the center and pushed it through the ✳ shape on the top of the box.

Then it was time to add the bling.

For most of them I inserted a star (attached to a painted bamboo skewer), and added some of the glittered grass.  Then depending on the box, I usually decorated the box with some type of garland or feathers.

Here are a bunch of them line up on the tops of my kitchen cabinets:

After I took these pictures I actually added some more bling to them.

I was worried about running out of materials, but once I had them all made, I went through and added more grass and garland.  After all, our event was held in a school gym, so I wanted some substance, and we were working with a Hollywood theme ~ the more bling the better :)

Here are the centerpieces at work:

Ok, that has to be the longest tutorial in the history of centerpiece tutorials!

Anyway, These looked fabulous (way better in person) and could EASILY be adapted for ANY party theme.