SPORTING TABLE CENTERPIECES ...

I know that I've told y'all before, that I am responsible for the Staff Appreciation Lunches that our PTA puts on for our teachers. Our most recent one was this past Friday, and was unique in that it coincided with Field Day, which meant that the parents were invited to enjoy lunch with the staff. Given that it was Field Day, and we were still in the height of World Series fever here in Texas (yes, we were still blissfully unaware that the Rangers wouldn't win it .... sadly!!!), I decided to go for a sports theme. The centerpieces had me a little puzzled for a while .... but nothing that a google search couldn't fix. I found a picture of something similar to what I eventually made .... it was easy, and turned out to be quite cute, I think.

I cut a 8" strofoam ball in half and painted it - white for the baseball and orange for the basketball. A word of advice - if ever you want to paint styrofoam, just know that it takes A LOT of paint to get good coverage. Once dry, I painted on the markings of the balls. I cut squares of tissue paper, that I attached to the ball with floral pins. The plastic signs, I found in the section that sells the stuff for homecoming mums. I glued them to wooden skewers, and poked them in place. The ball figures are Christmas decorations, that I also glued a floral pin to, and poked into the ball. I pinned balloons into the center. The board, is just a cake board that I glued a 11/2" border of scrapbook cardstock around. I filled the board with spanish moss, to give the appearance of grass.
I think they would make great coaches gifts (or even a gift for a little sports fan), if you attached various bite size candies to skewers, and poked them into the ball at varying heights.

Well, tomorrow is Halloween ..... we're hosting a Halloween get together for our Cub Scout Den ... I'm busy thinking about creepy food, and exactly what I'm going to be making ...