Thanks, Coach

CJ played for Upward Basketball at our church again this year. Tonight is the awards ceremony. (We play our season early so the school can have the gym during actual basketball season.)

I've been trying to come up with something to make as a thank you gift. I made this today. (Did I mention the ceremony is tonight? Nothing like waiting until the last minute!)

I was having trouble because I wanted something fitting for a male coach. And then today, when I was looking at the team picture I realized I needed to make it for the coach and his wife! I have NO IDEA why I had not even considered that before - duh!

Anyway, I still didn't want any thing froo-froo, so this is what I came up with.


I scanned the team photo and reduced it to fit on the post-it-note holder. (Yes, they were a VERY small team - we didn't have many middle-schoolers playing this year.)

For the pen, I was going to just do the one where you slide the paper down into the barrel of the pen - I but I didn't have any of the right pens on hand. And since the gift was now for both of them, I decided the beaded pen would work just fine.

I have a bunch of these little tins left over from Christmas last year and haven't done anything with them. This one will be filled with candy - probably Hersey's Miniatures - which I will be picking up on the way to the ceremony tonight!

And the card - super quick and easy. I really didn't want white lettering, but had limited options since I couldn't find any lighter coordinating cardstock that would match. I guess it turned out ok though.

Anyway, I hope they like it!

Paper Bag Album

I made this cute little album out of lunch bags. I really like the way it turned out. I need to find a couple more pictures to go on the inserts, and I plan to journal on at least one of them too. I used a variety of products on it.

This is the front cover.

Pages 1 & 2


Pages 3 & 4 - the team picture and his individual shot. He ended up being the only boy on the team, and all the girls are taller than him! The upper grades didn't have that many kids playing, so the teams are small.

Pages 5 & 6 - I know this picture is the same as the previous page, but this was one of the trading cards, and I wanted to include it. I wanted to be able to see the front and the back, so I cut the stats from the back of one to include it.

Pages 7 & 8 - just some action shots.

Pages 9 & 10 - these pictures were taken on awards night. Unfortunately, the kids walked across the stage so quickly, I could not get a good shot. So here he is with his coach. And then the trophy he got.

The back cover.

A couple of the inserts. These slide into the places where the bag is open (the 'tops' of the bags). I plan to journal on at least one of the backs.

And this is the other insert. I really need to look for one more picture for this page!

CJ's been sitting here looking the actual book while I am posting, and he seems to like it a lot. He keeps saying, "Cool!" This is why I do this! It makes me so proud when my family looks at what I make and they actually like and appreciate it!!!