SOCCER PARTY - FREE PRINTABLES

Somehow or other I got roped into being the Team Mom for my son's soccer team.  Having never played sports myself, and this being my son's first experience, I had NO CLUE what I was doing.  In the end, I think I did okay - at least no one complained (they might have just been grateful it wasn't them!).  I was actually really excited to through the end-of-season party.  Unfortunately, the party ended up being the same weekend as two other parties I was in charge of, so going all out was not really an option.  But for less than $5 and 5 hours of work, I got a TON of compliments.

We had the party at a park so the kids could play, and everyone was instructed to bring their own picnic lunches.  I had a display set up with cupcakes for everyone and the kids' trophies.  Here's the breakdown of the display:

Cupcakes - I spent $2 on cupcake mixes, and $1 on the cupcake liners.  I'm still trying to figure out the best

way to use those cute liners.  When I've tried baking directly in them, they have literally fallen off the cupcakes while still on the plate, which doesn't look very cute and kind of defeats the purpose.  This time I baked in the regular liners, and then stuck the whole baked cupcake into the blue liner.  This worked better, but still not perfect - if you know the secret to using these, please let me in on it! I also designed the cupcake toppers, which I printed onto cardstock, punched out with a 1 1/4" circle punch, and hot glued a toothpick to the backs.

Displays - I already had the glass cupcake stand from a previous party, but I knew that 40 cupcakes were not going to fit on there.  So I found some kraft wrapping paper at the dollar store, and wrapped two boxes with it (they are pineapple boxes from Costco - which I have used so many times, they are the perfect size!).

Banner -The banner I designed as well, printed onto cardstock, and then sewed together on the sewing machine.  If you don't sew, you can also glue the pieces onto ribbon (I like using hot glue, as it won't make the paper wavy like wet glue does). 

Ditched Ideas - I have learned that whenever you plan a party, expect to ditch plan A, and plan B, and possibly plan C.  It ended up being fairly breezy the day of our party, so there are a few ideas that didn't work for me, but may work for you.  I bought a royal blue tablecloth at the dollar store that I was going to use as a table runner, but it kept blowing up and knocking over cupcakes.  Also, I had planned on buying 4 balloons (2 blue, 2 orange) and weighting two of them down on each box, but again, the wind would have had them all over the place, and that idea had to go.

So, for any of you out there that find yourself in my position (of not having a clue how to throw a soccer party, or needing to put something together FAST), I am including a link for the FREE cupcake toppers and banner printables.  If you have any great ideas for after-season sports parties, please post them in Comments!

Resources: Soccer Cupcake Toppers and Banner - Free Printables
Skills required: easy papercrafting
Approximate time to craft*: 1 hour for a banner and 40 cupcake toppers
Approximate cost for supplies*: $1
*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.