DIY: Football Door Decoration with Deco Mesh

Football season is here! And everyone loves to support their favorite team, from high school football favorites to city-wide college and NFL teams. A perfect way to support your team is to decorate your door with this fun football wreath made of deco mesh and a brown work wreath form.  Here is the step by step tutorial, so you can create a football of your own.

Customized your football to your school colors and mascot. Add team colored emblems to the front or team colored ribbon. We are partial to the Tigers (Geaux LSU!) so we added sparkly purple and gold ribbon to hang our football decoration.

Supplies:

Brown Deco Mesh- 21" wide roll

Chocolate Brown Work Wreath Form-24"

Wired glamour rope- white

Scissors
Wire cutters
glue of your preference (Elmer's glue dots shown), wire or thread

Optional- team colored ribbon (2.5" deco mesh ribbon in metallic purple and gold)

How to create this Football Door Decoration:

STEP 1: Start with a standard round 24" chocolate brown work wreath. Working on a solid surface, push down on the top of the wreath form to shape the form into a oval or football shape. Aim for a slight pointy shape on each end. Make sure the pointed ends have a wire tie.

STEP 2: Just as in our pumpkin wreath tutorial, we will be using the wire wreath form in an unusual order (see note below). Instead of circling around the wreath form, you will be attaching the mesh across the form. For this football creation, you do not use the inner ring ties so you can wrap these ties around the inner ring to hide them and keep them out of the way.

NOTE: A work wreath form is a standard wire wreath form with pre-attached tinsel ties that come in assorted colors. The standard way to use the work wreath form is to attach mesh or ribbon around the form, starting on the inner ring of ties. After the first ring is filled, move out to the second ring. For more information using a work wreath from, see this post. To purchase wreath forms, click here.

STEP 3:  Attach the brown 21" wide mesh to the brown wire wreath form. Again, we do this a bit different than the standard wreath method. Instead of bunch the mesh into a tie, the mesh is folded once, then folded over again twice. This makes the mesh lines across the football neater and more linear (like the lines on a football). It also make the mesh more opaque since you are only going across the form once in each place. The photo above shows the mesh folded once.

STEP 4: Place the wreath form in front of you. Start at the bottom right corner of your oval (as shown). Insert the folded end of the mesh between two wire ties and twist to secure.

STEP 5: Continue around the outer ring of the form. Remember fold the mesh (not bunch) as you attach it into the wire ties. Attach the mesh in one short loop on the end. Then move on from the top right to the top left. Another short loop on the end- then back to the tie you began with. Do you see the football shape forming?

STEP 6: A bit further down from the final tie, cut the mesh off from the roll (as shown). Tuck this mesh tail in the side loop. This extra mesh will help to fill in this part of the football.

STEP 7: Take the folded up end of the mesh and attach at the top left corner- into the same tie you used for the outside circle of mesh (as shown). Cross the wreath form at the top and attach folded mesh into the tie you used on the other side. Now circle back over, coming back to the tie you started with. Open this tie and attach the mesh. Leave a bit of a tail on the mesh piece and cut off here. Tuck this tail into the side hoop to fill it out- just as you did on the other side.

STEP 8: Repeat this step  across the wreath form. For the next piece, start on the far right tie (the one on the point). With folded mesh move over to the other side. Insert mesh into this side tie. Then move back  over to the tie you started with and cut the mesh off. Tuck in excess tail of mesh.

STEP 9: Repeat again at the wire ties on the bottom left and right corners. Once you are finished fluff and adjust the mesh as needed to create that football shape. You want linear lines of mesh crossing the football just like the leather seams on a real football.

TIP: To fill areas of the mesh that may need more puff- cut individual pieces of mesh and stuff in from the back of the wreath form.

Create your football laces:

with white wired glamour rope and the wire cutters

STEP 1:  Cut a piece of glamour rope approximately 24" long. Fold this wire piece in half.

STEP 2:  Cut 5-8 more small pieces of wire (Eight laces is standard on a real football; we used five.) STEP 3:  Fold these wire pieces in half as shown. 

STEP 4:  Attach these small piece to your long piece of wire by wrapping the folded pieces around the wire. This forms your mock laces for the football.

Attach laces to the front of the football with glue, string or wire. We used super sticky glue dots.

 With the addition of a purple and gold ribbon at the top, our football is complete.

Good luck on your football creation- and good luck to your team...

unless of course... your team is playing LSU!

There are so many ways to use deco mesh and work wreath homes, click here for more tutorials and ideas!

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Team Sports Beads

Colored Mardi Gras Beads aren't just for Mardi Gras; Team colored beads are great way to celebrate fall football games, school spirit and other school sports. Bead strands come in many different colors; mix and match them to coordinate with your school colors. Toss bead necklaces to fans at the big game to rev up the crowd. Decorate with team beads for any game, rally or school event to make it even more festive. Sell team colored beads for a creative school fundraiser- a great way to support the team and raise money!

(photos: MelvinSchulbman, tessa.tillet)

For a football game, try these huge Jumbo Football beads that come in lots of color ways (shown here: black and gold, red and black, purple and gold.) Each football bead is 2" x 1" and the strand itself is 42" long! Pictured below are some smaller sized football shaped beads. These necklaces are 36" long with smaller football beads.These also come in many colors and are more affordable for tossing out to fans.

The swirl necklaces below are an elegant option for teams and businesses looking for products in their own colors. These are 38" long hand-strung necklaces with a pearlized satin finish, with beads in alternating colors. Each high-quality bead is about 1.25" x .5", and are separated by small round metallic beads.

Looking for less expensive beads for sporting or school events? Last but not least are these two-toned round beads. These come in affordable packs of 12 strands. Each 36" necklace has six sections of its two colors.

Whatever option you choose, Mardi Gras beads in your team colors are sure to be a hit with both players and fans!

(photo: Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune)

For beads in many more team colors and styles visit,  MardiGrasOutlet.com.

I ♥ Fall Football !

Just in time for our first home college football game this weekend, the first glimpse of fall weather arrives. Yeah! I love SEC football and all the tradition that surrounds home football games. Every campus has its various tailgate traditions. From the grove to the parade grounds, people in the south love football and the ritual of a home game. In honor of our first home game, here are some of my favorite things about home LSU (Louisiana State University) football games. 

Football Favorites ♥ from home LSU games

1. The sound of the first few beats of the fight song (Da Da Da...Da).
2. The Golden Band from Tigerland marching up the hill to the stadium.
3. Sliding down the Indian Mounds  (sadly, not on game day anymore, see www.2theadvocate.com) .
4. The sensation of coming out of the dark around the stadium into the bright lights of the field.
5. The sound of the crowd erupting when the home team takes the field.
6. Flashes of  poppers going off during the Star Spangled Banner.
7. Mike the Tiger's roar!
8. "Tiger Baiting" a rival team tailgater.
9. Good food, cold beer and a reason to celebrate the "good times" in life.
10. Finding old friends, new friends and good friends all out tailgating!
    

Football Photos- To get you in the fall football spirit, I posted these photos of  footballs I've spotted lately. The Football Rice Krispie treats are sure to be a hit with your tailgaters. They were with my little Tigers!

1. This fun football cake is from our neighborhood Piggly Wiggly. Where else, but the south do we have grocery stores named after a pig? You know we really love our pork products! This cake was not only cute, but also delicious and inexpensive. I paid less than $10 for it. Way to geaux Piggly Wiggly!
2. Have you seen these yet? Football shaped tortilla chips. So festive and great for tailgating.
3. Football Rice Krispies® Treats. Great for tailgate parties or children's football themed party. See our Rice Krispies Treats post for the recipe.

For more LSU football inspired products, see the Purple and Gold section at Mardi Gras Outlet. There are decorations, team beads, football shaped beads, spirit shakers and more.

 GEAUX TIGERS! (Da,Da,Da...Da...I can hear it now!)