| click on a category | ||||
| Kids' Team Parties | Super Bowl | Olympics | Basketball | Sports Themed Movies |
| KIDS' TEAM PARTIES Every summer we have our granddaughters' soccer teams over for a movie night.  Prior to the movie, we begin with a slideshow comprised of sports trading cards, each featuring a team player (and the manager and coaches, of course). For template ideas, do a Google image search. My card was modeled after an image on the Silly Scenes website. |   > |
(Names and numbers have been changed.)
If you're not into designing something yourself, a number of sites sell card templates.
Ash Designs offers a Sport Trading Card Package (baseball, soccer, basketball) for a fairly reasonable price.
Each sport card comes with two templates - one for the front of the card and one for the back, which fit nicely side-by-side on a movie screen.
And if you're feeling flush (even though you just spent a fortune on ANOTHER pair of gym shoes), you might want to consider printing a sheet of cards for each player to take home at the end of the party.
When I need to create a slideshow FAST, I use iPhoto's slideshow component or, more often, PulpMotion. PulpMotion is a simple drag and drop slideshow creator. There's no real learning curve. Parents can email 5 of their favorite shots to you after the game, and by the time the party rolls around that same day, you have a completed movie! There's nothing like seeing yourself on the big screen.
The PulpMotion sport themes include soccer, baseball, tennis, ping-pong, and basketball.
Back to Kids' Team Parties
Back to the Top
OLYMPICS
Let the Audience be the Judges
While viewing the judged events
(gymnastics, diving, boxing, etc.),
give the fans individual chalkboards
and let them see how close
they can come to the athletes' scores.
My chalkboards are made from 8.5 by 11 pieces of cardboard. Since the judges may be writing on their laps, I reinforced the chalkboards with a second piece of cardboard glued to the back. The back reinforcement sheet can be in one, two, or three pieces if full sheets are hard to come by.
 1. Laminate the two pieces together with glue. The advertisements on the cardboard might possibly bleed through the paint, so turn the good side (no writing) toward the outside. Put glue on the side with writing. |  2. Stack the glued cardboard sheets and place a heavy object on top to weight them down while they dry. |
 3. Find a half used can of spray paint in your cupboard and spray the fronts of the chalkboards (backs too, if you so desire). It doesn't matter what color you use. The paint is acting as a primer to minimize the absorption of the chalkboard paint. |  4. Give the front of the chalkboard two coats of chalkboard paint. |
 5. Cover the edges of the chalkboard with tape. (I used white duct tape.). Cure each chalkboard by rubbing the side of a chalk stick over the entire surface. Erase the excess chalk. Add a piece of chalk and a small rag eraser. I made a dozen of these - all with materials I had on hand. Assuming the cardboard is free and you already have the spray paint and glue, you can make 35 - 40 chalkboards for about $20 (chalkboard paint: $15.00; duct tape: $3.00.) | |
Back to Olympics
Back to the Top
SPORTS THEMED MOVIES
The Bad News Bears
 |
a sports themed birthday party. Just add a movie. |
 |
 |
||
 An enlarged version of the above backdrop was painted to use inside the Photo Booth. ------- > If you're looking to paint your own backdrops (party stores sell them for $16 and up - for example . . .), do a Google image search for your backdrop image, adding the words "coloring pages" or "cartoon" at the end of your search criteria. This helps to locate a simplistic picture that's easier to duplicate. I found this image by googling "baseball backdrop cartoon" and clicking the images tab. |  | |
A Bad News Bears logo was located on the internet. Three logos were printed and colored with felt pens. The logos were cut out and glued to yellow baseball caps.  | a white t-shirt, yellow puffy paint, and a black felt-tip pen  | |
 | ||
 | ||
Back to the Top
SUPER BOWL 2013
The kick-off is early in California, so the drop-down windbreakers that surround our patio
come out to shade the area.
The plastic window is covered to keep out ambient light.
Back to Super Bowl
Back to Televised Events
Back to the Top
BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS
Even the baby had her LA Clippers uniform on in anticipation of the first 7:30 pm game.
