Remember when I redid my fireplace last year?

 

 

Well, I failed to share with you where we pIaced the TV components {Blu Ray player and Satellite Dish box}. And, I have gotten several requests to 'show it to us, already!!' So, here are the deets...

 

As you can see in the 'before', all of the components were slid underneath the TV. And the 'after' picture, well...it's like magic. 

 

 

Not really.....do you see them????

   

  

 

We have a receiver that has to 'see' the remote so we knew that it had to be out. We decided to make a box that would be just big enough for the components to slip in.

 

 

I didn't want the box just hanging out on it's own so we decided that under the plant would be a good spot. I wanted it to be as close to the same width of the basket as possible.  

 

 

 Using MDF, it measures 17 1/2" D x 19" L x 7". The edges were glued and then using a nail gun, nailed in place.

 

 

 

The back was made using 2 pieces so that all of the cables could slip through.

 

 

And speaking of cords...While the top was still open, Robert cut a hole in the sheetrock behind our new wood wall. 

 

 

 

They were then fished down the wall. About a 4' piece of the baseboard, to the left of the fireplace, was cut off. Notches were made in the studs and the cords were pulled through at the very bottom of the wall. They were then fed up about 18" to the new cable box.  We bought a low voltage cable plate that the TV cords exit out of and attach to the Satelite Box. {there was already an existing outlet in this area}.

 

 

 

As well as a low voltage mounting bracket device that slips into the hole in the wall and holds the above bracket in place.

 

{via}

After all the cords were pulled through, the baseboard trim was glued back on.

 

 

I wanted the box to blend in with the basket, so I primed it, then I really studied the colors of the basket.

 

 

There is a base of a taupey-gray with some lighter tans and darker browns. I painted it with Oatbran by Valspar. When it was dry, I rubbed on Tudor Brown Briwax rather heavy handedly, let it dry for a minute and then buffed it off. It gives the box varying colors and looks a lot like the colors of the basket.      

 

 

 

 

Ok, so this is the last post on designing a Sports Party--promise!! Today's DIY tiered cupcake/cookie server is the most expensive to make, but, it was my favorite piece at the reception! 

 

  

 

Ideally, I wanted to make this out of an old found trophy, but I ran out of time and with the popularity of old trophies right now, buying the parts turned out to be more cost-effective. 

I went to our local trophy and awards store. I had never been in here before and I loved what I found. There is everything imaginable to craft a trophy out of. Since my focus was on volleyball and basketball, I tried to focus on those components. You can seriously create any size or color your little celebratory heart desires.

I chose a triangle-ish bottom base and secondary base. These suckers are heavy. This is where all of the weight of a trophy is hidden. They were finished in a bad black, gold, and silver faux marble look. Well, not bad, just not what I was loving.

 

 

After the bases were sprayed with a plastic primer, I covered them with gold metallic spray paint.  

 

 

They cut the metallic PVC on-site any length you want, but you can also cut it yourself with a hand saw. They also screw pieces of the metal rods together creating the same length of your cut PVC. These rods drop down into the PVC to attach everything. 

 

 

To make the discs that the food sits on, I used Wilton cardboard circles. The circles were sold in a set of 6. These come in just about every size and they were about $6.50 at Michael's, before the coupon.

 

 

I wanted the circles to feel a little heftier, and since there were so many in a pack, I doubled them. I cut a circle out of some insulation board a bit smaller than the cake circle. I hot glued it in between the 2 cake circles making an insulation sandwich.      

 

 

Using a 7/8" metallic ribbon, I hot glued it onto the edges of the cardboard a few inches at a time.  

 

  

 

 

The bottom of the trophy was put together like a normal trophy.

 

 

Then the 4" pieces were placed over the top 3 gold screw caps. The 16" disc was then placed on top (centered) and with a pencil, I drew around the PVC onto the bottom of the disc. Then I took the disc off and with an exacto knife I cut out the holes. I cut through only the bottom piece, but not the top.  

Then I sat the last (2) 7" PVC pipes around 4" apart on top of the 16" disc and traced around them. Then I cut the circles out of the cardboard -- not going through the bottom piece. This allows the PVC parts to slide into the cardboard

 

 

Using hot glue, I rimmed the PVC before placing them. The bottom of the 14" top piece was traced, cut out, and glued in place

 

 

 

The same finial spacer that I used here was sprayed gold and hot glued underneath the volleyball topper. It was then hot glued in the center of the top disc.

 

 

On the bottom base, I spray painted a curtain ring gold and hot glued it in the center. Then a 4" volleyball was placed in it.

 

 

 The smaller version was used with a wooden plaque that was spray painted black. There were no rods used, just hot glue. The (2) 14" disc edges were covered in a satin ribbon. This type of ribbon I would not recommend. it shows every little hot glue bump and it wrinkles. I would only use metallic {which is papery} or grosgrain ribbon.

To create both of the trophy servers cost about $50. 

 

 

 

The basketball hoop was bought at Wal-Mart for about $2.75. using the same sandwich technique with the 16" cake circles, I covered the edge in an orange and white stripe 7/8" ribbon.

I measured about every 4" around the circle and hot glued a tiny piece of each loop onto the bottom of the disc.

 

 

I flipped it upside down. I found the tallest vase I had and filled it with water to give it some weight. Then I hot glued {surprise!} the top of the vase onto the bottom of the disc, and voila -- a tall cookie platter!!

 

 

 If you want to visit the other posts from the Sports Party, click here:

Designing a Thank-You

Giant Party Props

 

Sporting the serving pieces: Part 1

 

 

 

Welcome back! I hope your weekend was great. During our pretty Saturday snow, I got caught up on emails and let my brain storm for some upcoming events. I am getting approached with some great projects and my brain is on overload with the possibilities. Why is it that projects/clients have a way of landing in your inbox all at one time? Careful what you ask for, right :)   

I had such a great time coming up with fun inexpensive 'sporty' ways to serve up our food at last weeks reception. I wanted to share my how-to's because so many of you have shared with me that you are sports moms, too. So, if you have sports banquets coming up, you may want to try making one of these. 

 

 

This one cost all of $1. The foam balls are what our cheerleaders throw out at games. Big hint: ask the schools cheerleading coach for any props or extra marketing material they may have. They're a great resource!  We took a dowel rod {which we had} and with a sharp knife, whittled the end until it was sharp. Then, we slipped it through the middle of each ball. I liked the height that using 3 balls created, but you could make several and they could all be different heights.

Wooden bases can be bought for a few bucks at Michaels, but we have so much scrap wood that Robert used a 1 x 6 and routed the edges. I primed it and spray painted it white. Then we drilled a hole in the middle of the base, the same size diameter as the dowel rod. When you push the dowel all the way through, cut off the excess with a hand saw.        

 

 

I hot glued a 'spacer' from a curtain rod finial that I didn't use on the top of the foam ball. {I throw nothing away. My husband loves this about me. sarcasm.}  

 That bottom part of the Allen & Roth finial is a separate piece and screws off. I usually don't use them.

 

 

Using the lid from an empty paint can {nope, I don't throw them away either} I spray painted it black {not a necessary step, but it just makes it look better if someone were to look under neath it}. Because the finial spacer didn't provide what I thought would be enough support, I hot glued the paint lid on to the bottom of a Dollar Tree silver tray. The tray is the only thing we had to buy.

 

 

Then, the paint lid was hot glued onto the finial spacer.

 

 

Another serving piece was created by using a fat clear vase filled with small volleyballs.

 

 

With some hot glue around the top edge of the vase, a gold Dollar Tree Charger was glued on top. The 4" volleyballs and 6" basketballs were found at The Swim Outlet. When you are done with your party, the plastic plates can be popped off and the hot glue also pops off the glass. This way, no fear, you can reuse your volleyballs and your vases are not damaged.

The Dollar Tree had a great selection of serving pieces {a lot more to choose from in-store than on their website} and obviously you can't beat their prices. They had clear, colored, metallic, oblong, rectangle -- soooo many to choose from.   

Tomorrow, I'll show you how I made the trophy servers and the basketball hoop server.  

 

 

Yesterday I shared our reception to honor our Lady Mustang Coach. Today, I wanted to show you how I made the giant photo covered '25'.

 

 

Because I had close to 100 photos of team and game photos, I needed to come up with a way to display as many as I possibly could. I thought this 3 dimensional '25' {for her 25 years years of coaching} would be a great collage backdrop.   

I know it looks like it is solid and heavy -- it's not. It literally weighs about a pound! You can pick it up with 2 fingers. So, even though it is big, it is incredibly easy to move around.

 

 

When I worked as a visual merchandiser many moons ago, we used huge sheets of foamcore for our displays almost weekly. Even years ago, it was really really expensive per sheet. I found a great alternative at Lowe's. We bought {4} 4 x 8 pieces of insulation board. The front is white and the back is covered with a super thin piece of silver paper. These were $7 a piece.

 

 

With a Sharpie, I sketched out a number 2 and a number 5 on the white side. Using a box cutter, I cut them out, This stuff cuts really easily but it does leave little pieces of foam everywhere.

Then I flipped the numbers over and traced them backwards onto the other 2 sheets. This way, the white side was on the outside of the front and back. 

 

 

I figured out that the depth of the numbers would be 15" deep. To connect the fronts to the backs, I used strips of cardboard that I cut to be @15" long. I folded tabs on each end and hot glued them all to the inside silver side. Then I laid the back of the 5 on top and glued the cardboard tabs to the inside silver side of the other side. It's a little tricky and is definitely a 2 person job. Now the front and back are loosely attached.

 

 

The sides were made out of poster board. Using a yardstick, I drew a line down the middle lengthwise and then cut them. I used around 11 sheets total. Then, using a hot glue gun, I glued them end to end, overlapping about 1/2".

 

 

 

We stood the numbers up and starting at the top, I taped the edge of the posterboard strip to the front and back side of the number using masking tape. There are no pictures of this step because it takes 8  4 hands to do this. It was tough at first, but we found our groove after a few minutes. 

 

 

 

 

I also ran the poster board underneath {on the bottom} to give it added strength. After it is all taped, it is really stable and has no problem standing on it's own.

Half of the pictures I had were on a jump drive and the other half were printed images. I took them to Staples and made copies of everything. I used mostly 8 x 11's, some were enlarged to 11 x 14's and there were some smaller 4 x 6's. I used around 100 photo copies.

I laid them out and slowly, like working a puzzle, began filling all of the white board with the pictures. To adhere the photos, I sprayed the backs with a thin coat of Professional Performance Loctite Spray Adhesive.

 

 

I learned that a normal craft spray adhesive doesn't work. I used it to adhere a few pictures and the next day they were curling off. After switching to the Loctite, they weren't going anywhere. I am pretty sure that if you accidentally cut off an appendage, a little squirt of this stuff and you're reattached. serious stuff.     

I covered the fronts of the numbers with photos first and then worked my way around all of the sides. Any white areas that were left, I filled in with scrap pieces cut out of extra copies.

 

  

 

 

This project takes some time, so get caught up on Downton Abbey or find a Sarah Richardson Marathon while you glue. And put down loads of dropcloths because the glue overspray travels and you will find yourself stuck to the floor {I'm just guessing...}.  

This idea could be used for a graduation party where you make a '2013'. They would also be fun for a Sweet '16' party, or a sorority could make their letters ... lots of options!