Football Helmet Refrigerator Magnet Craft

If you have a football fan in your life, you're going to love this football helmet craft! It's fun to do as a team activity, at a sports-themed party, or to make as gifts for football players and fans. You can customize the helmet however you want. Make a replica of the helmet from an NFL, college, or high school team, or design your own from your imagination! Affiliate links below.  

Football Helmet Refrigerator Magnet Craft

Materials: 

• wooden football helmets
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• paintbrushes - flat and liner
• Mod Podge Sealer (optional)
• self-adhesive magnets

Steps: 

Use a flat brush to paint the base coat for each helmet you are making. 

When the paint is dry, you can draw your design freehand. Or, if you need a little help getting the proportions of the logo just right, print out an image of the actual helmet that is the same size as the wooden helmet. Cut around the edges, then use this transfer technique to get the design onto your wooden piece. 

Use the liner brush to paint the logo onto the helmet, then paint the facemask in the appropriate color. 

The facemask continues onto the body of the helmet. I painted mine freehand, but you can sketch it out first or use the transfer technique again. 

If you are going to be putting your magnet on the refrigerator or somewhere else where it could get wet, use the Mod Podge to seal it as soon as the paint is dry. You can skip that step if your magnet is going onto something like an office filing cabinet, where it's very unlikely to get splashed. Finally, apply a magnet to the back of the helmet. 

Here's a closer look at each of the helmets I made: 

Indianapolis Colts

Cincinnati Bengals

Minnesota Vikings

Green Bay Packers

Cleveland Browns... who famously don't have a logo 

As I was painting these, I was thinking about other things you could do with them besides turn them into magnets. Drill a hole into the top and turn them into ornaments. Link them together to make a banner. Or write names on them to use as place settings at a team banquet or party. Lots of possibilities!

Sparkly 49ers Sign

I rarely work with bling, yet I have an enormous supply of sparkly, glittery things that have been sitting in the craft room forever. Time to use some of it up! This wooden arrow is decorated with gold paint, gold glitter, and leftover Diamond Dotz, It’s super sparkly; the photo doesn’t do it justice.

You may recognize the 49ers logo from a diamond Art kit I completed a couple of years ago. I had enough extra Dotz to make a second logo. Self-adhesive canvas with a printed grid makes it really easy. Affiliate links below. 

 

Sparkly 49ers Sign

Materials:

• Wooden arrow
• sandpaper
• Folk Art Treasure Gold
• Gold glitter glue
• round drills
• self-adhesive Diamond Art canvas
• Microtip scissors
• Craft glue

Steps: 

Sand the wooden arrow until it is smooth. Add a coat of Treasure Gold. When that is dry, add a generous coat of gold glitter glue. 

Create the logo or design of your choice by applying the Diamond Dotz to the canvas. When it is complete, carefully cut it out with microtip scissors and glue it to the arrow with a strong craft glue.  

Paper Plate Football Fan

Have you seen the football field cookies that are so popular? They're the inspiration for my project,  a football fan for a football fan! Affiliate links below. 

Paper Plate Football Fan

Materials: 

• paper plate
• painter's tape
• acrylic paint (green, light blue)
• craft glue
• glitter (team colors)
• white pen
• letter stickers
• jumbo craft stick

Steps: 

Apply a piece of painter's tape across the middle of the paper plate to establish the horizon. Add five pieces of 1/4" painter's tape radiating down from the center of the plate to form the yard lines.  

Paint the smooth section below the horizon line with green paint. Remove the tape. Paint the bumpy perimeter of the paper plate with light blue paint. 

When the paint is completely dry, rub a thin, even coat of tacky glue to the smooth section above the horizon line. Sprinkle on glitter in your team colors, covering the gluey area. Allow the glue to dry. 

Use a white pen to mark the 50-yard line. 

Add letters to spell out a message on your fan. You can put, "Go team!" like I did, or use the specific name of the school, city, or mascot. 

Glue a 10" craft stick to the back. Now you have a football fan that will help any football fan stay cool while supporting their team!

Football Helmet Collage

I've finished another coloring page from Don Stewart's Quirky Collages to Color (affiliate link here and below). The Football Helmet collage was the most difficult one I've done so far, for several reasons. 

The image is larger than ones I've colored previously and made up of more hidden objects, but it's the fact that I don't know anything about football that made it particularly tough. I had to ask Steve for help identifying some of the objects. Can you spot each of them listed below in the picture above? 

Once I figured out what everything was, then I had to look up some of the items to know if they're supposed to be a certain color. Once I picked out colors, I gave everything a base coat with art markers. Then I covered the whole thing with my newly-expanded collection of Prismacolor colored pencils and tried to work out shadows and highlights (with limited success). When I was done coloring, I cut out the helmet with microtip scissors, then adhered it to photo-realistic grass patterned paper. 

I really love this this coloring book and am looking forward to tackling (ha ha!) my next page. 

Cardboard Tube NFL Referee (Standard and Pandemic Versions)

It's that time of year when searches for football crafts explode. Most of the crafts out there are based on the field, goal posts, stadium, and the ball itself. I went a different direction and made a referee out of a cardboard tube. 

This is the pandemic version:

His mask is removable, if you prefer the pre-COVID version. Affiliate links below. 

Cardboard Tube NFL Referee

Materials:

• cardboard tube
• Folk Art paint (Titanium White and Camel)
• cardstock (white, black, and silver)
• microtip scissors
• craft glue
• ultra fine point Sharpies
• embroidery floss (black)
• googly eyes
• black seam binding

Steps:

Paint the cardboard tube. The top 1/3 should be your skin tone of choice (I used Camel) and the bottom 2/3 should be white. Paint a tiny scrap of cardstock with your skin tone color. You'll be cutting it out to make ears. 

While the paint dries, cut a circle of black cardstock with a diameter about 1" larger than that of the cardboard tube. Make cuts in the circle from the outside toward the center (like you're cutting pizza slices), stopping 1/2" from the center. This will be the top of the hat. Set it aside for now. 

Use a black Sharpie to draw a collar and stripes on the referee's shirt. Draw a rectangle where his pocket goes, then color the red and blue of the NFL logo with the ultra-thin Sharpies. It's really tiny, so don't expect perfection. Color around the logo with the black Sharpie.

Cut a tiny shield from white cardstock and use the red and blue Sharpies to make a second NFL logo. This will go on the hat (but not yet). 

Return to the hat circle. Cupping the circle in one hand, overlap the flaps you've cut so that each piece sits onto the one next to it. This will form the crown. Add craft glue all the way around the circumference of the crown and glue it to the top of the referee's head. You may have to hold it in place for a few minutes while the glue sets. Then cut a black visor. 

You should be here:

Glue the googly eyes in place and add a nose and a smile. Glue the logo to the crown of the hat and add the visor. You should be here:

Cut a short length of embroidery floss, then remove 4 strands (leaving 2). Put a dot of glue on his chest where the whistle will sit, then additional glue on each of his (non-existent) 'shoulders' and another dot of glue on the back of his neck. Place the center of the floss on his chest, then wrap the ends around to meet behind his neck, making sure the floss rests on his shoulders. 

Cut a silver whistle (basically the shape of a comma) and glue it on his chest. 

Cut two ears from the painted cardstock. Glue them in place. Now you're here. 

To make the mask, cut a small piece of seam binding and two short lengths of embroidery floss (use all six strands this time). Glue the ends of each piece of floss to the corners of the mask, leaving just enough slack so you can get the mask in place after it dries. If you don't care about being able to remove the mask, just glue it in place. That's easier. 

I had a lot of fun making my referee. Enjoy!

Football Diamond Art

I'm not a sports fan, but Steve and all of my inlaws are rabid 49ers fans. They were thrilled that the 49ers were in the Super Bowl, but obviously not particularly happy about the outcome. Maybe next year! 

If you or someone in your life is a football fan, you're definitely going to want to check out the NFL series by Leisure Arts (affiliate link here and throughout the post). I used the 49ers kit, then framed it with a wood panel and poured paints by Plaid. 

I started by completing the Diamond Art kit, which was straightforward and relatively quick. The kit includes everything you need. Next, I cut out away the background fabric with my microtip scissors. I LOVE them. 

My goal in cutting away the background fabric was two-fold. First, I wanted to be able to fit the design in the square panel, and second, I wanted to have a less busy background. Cutting out the basic shapes was quick and easy. 

Cutting out the inner parts was not. It took a really, REALLY long time to carefully cut away all of the inner fabric using a sharp craft knife and a self-healing mat. 

Once everything was cut, I turned my attention to the frame. I mixed the pouring medium into Folk Art acrylics (yellow, red, and black) and drizzled them over the frame until I was happy with the marbling. Once the paint was dry, I added the cardstock and the Diamond Art pieces with Supertite.

Now that this is done, I'm looking forward to starting my next Diamond Art project. What to make though? I have a few kits I could start (including this one that I love), or I could do a freestyle design. So many options!

Football Photo Frame

A friend gave me a stack of foam sports ball embellishments, so I challenged myself to use the football. This frame was a lot of fun to make and would be great for displaying a team photo, a special autograph, or other memorabilia. This post contains affiliate links. 

---------

Football Photo Frame

Materials:

• unfinished wood photo frame
• foam brush
• Folk Art paint - white and green
• 1/4" (or 6 mm) washi tape or painters' tape
• number stickers
• craft glue
• craft foam football

Steps: 

Paint the frame white. When the paint is completely dry, add evenly-spaced strips of tape vertically on the frame. Starting at the center, use number stickers to label the 50-yard line. (I didn't have enough 0 stickers, so I had to reuse it, which was a giant pain. Make sure you have enough stickers.)

Paint over the frame in green, using a pouncing motion. Don't use normal brushstrokes or you could get paint under the tape and stickers. 

I had to carefully paint around the areas that don't have their last 0 stickers yet. You won't have this problem, because you will have enough 0's for the whole project. 

Carefully remove the tape by lifting straight up. 

Now, peel up the numbers. I like to use a retractable craft pick for a job like this. (Note that even though the tool is completely ambidextrous, the printing makes it obvious that it was designed for/by right-handed people. Sigh.)

Anyway, use the pick to peel up the numbers. You may need to do a little bit of touch-up painting. When the paint is dry, use craft glue to attach the football to the upper right corner. 

Now just add your photo, autograph, or memorabilia and your frame is ready to display!

The Cursive Project: Football

Time for Letter F of The Cursive Project! Trevor chose "football" for the day's activity. I thought it would be fun to teach him how to make a stuffed football. My sewing skills are extremely limited to say the least, but I do know enough to teach Trevor how to sew two ovals of brown felt together.

He started by drawing a pattern on butcher paper, then I helped him use it to cut out two pieces of brown felt. Trevor has used the sewing machine only once before (when he sewed his own napkin for the kids' tablesetting contest in 2012), so he needed a full lesson on how to work the machine. After practicing on scraps, he was ready to sew his football. I reminded him to leave one end open so that we could stuff it. He really concentrated and did a great job.

Next, I showed him how to turn the football inside out. Since felt doesn't have a right side or a wrong side, we didn't have to address the whole idea of putting the wrong sides together at the beginning.  

He couldn't get the point of the football to poke out, so I showed him how to use a craft stick to force it into the proper shape.

The next step was cutting white felt to make the lines and stitching of the football.  He attached them with craft glue. I'd considered having him sew them in place before stitching the two brown pieces together, but was concerned that his seam allowances might be so large and/or uneven that the lines might look strange.

Next, he added fiberfill to his football. I explained the various ways to close the gap. He chose the fastest one (hot glue) because he was eager to use the football to play a game we invented.

Finished!

Before we could play the game, we had to make a goalpost. We keep a stash of empty cardboard tubes, so it was just a matter of taping a wrapping paper tube with three paper towel tubes. I asked Trevor if he wanted to paint it to hide the tape, but he did not.

We pounded a random length of metal into the ground, then slid the goalpost over it. Worked like a charm!

Then we used masking tape to mark lines on the lawn.

Time to play! The rules are simple. Stand at the orange cones and throw the football into the first space. If you succeed, retrieve the football and throw it into the second space. Continue until you miss. Mark your spot with a colored cone, then it's the next person's turn. In this picture, you can see that Trevor (blue cone) is aiming for the 6th space, while Steve (green cone) is waiting for his first turn to try for the 1st space.  

After each round, move the orange cones forward one spot. Here you can see that the orange cones have moved up and that Steve (green cone) is aiming for what is now the 2nd spot. I'm (red cone) one spot ahead and Trevor is in the lead.

After successfully getting your cone into the final square, attempt throwing it between the goalposts. It's not easy, which is why it's very helpful that the orange starting cones keep moving forward.  

We ended up playing multiple rounds. Trevor and I always got off to an early start, but then Steve would be the one to throw the football through the goalposts. Trevor did end up winning once, but I didn't. I was almost always the first to make it TO the goalposts, but I never made it THROUGH the goalposts. No matter - we had a lot of fun.

Now that we've done Letter F, we're ready to go on to Letter G!