football centerpiece

Blogs and websites are full of inspiring ideas for Valentine's Day right now.
I'm very excited to do some of the projects that I've seen.
But first things first.
What about the SuperBowl!
I know that since blogs are written mostly by women
there may not be a huge need for football crafts.
But we're having a Super Bowl party again this year,
so I wanted to make some decorations to make the party more festive.

I did find a few ideas online and some of those sparked other ideas.
So, for now I'll share a tutorial on the football centerpiece I made,
and come back later for some other football related crafts.

And because Valentine's Day is so close I adapted the centerpiece to work
for Valentine's Day and that's included here as well.

Here is the finished product.
Cute, right?

Gather your materials:

construction paper,
fun foam paper,
paper towel tube

paper plate
scissors
double sided tape
regular tape
white-out or white paint pen
and pipe cleaners
(although the glue is in the photo I never used it)

This is the stash for the football centerpiece.
This is the stash for the Valentine's Day centerpiece.
Trace your paper plate upside down onto green construction paper (or pink for VDay)

Cut out the circle you just drew and trace the paper towel tube in the center of that circle and cut that out as well.
Decorate your circles with yard lines or hearts.Cover the paper towel tubes with brown (football) or white (Vday) construction paper.
Some of the tube will not get covered if you use a standard sheet of paper and that's okay.
Cut about five slits in the bottom of the tube that's not covered all the way up to where the paper starts.
Fold these slits out at the same point on each one in order to make the tube stand up.
Poke eight holes in the top of the tube, alternate high and low (4 high and 4 low)
Put the end of the tube through the hole in the colored construction paper.
I put double sided tape on these little "legs"
Using the colored construction paper as a guide put the legs of the paper towel tube onto the paper plate and secure with tape.
I also used some double sided tape on the 40 and 20 yard lines to secure the construction paper to the plate.

Cut out football shapes from the brown fun foam and draw stitch lines on with paint pen or white out. Cut heart shapes out for the VDay centerpiece.
Tape the football or heart shapes to pipe cleaners that have been cut in half.
Add pipe cleaners to the already poked holes in the top of the paper towel tube. I suggest bending the pipe cleaner up so that it is more secure.
Cut out a goal post or heart for the top. I made sure that the bottom was the same size as the paper towel roll so I could just slip it in.

And then stand back and admire your work!
Place it on the table with all the great (yummy but not good for you) appetizers.

Here's the finished Valentine's Day centerpiece

I got this idea from here...but then promptly changed some things to make them better (in my opinion)