Now that most of the living room / dining / kitchen is done, I’ve decided to move on to the office.  We (ok maybe I) decided our office would be a smorgasbord — part office, craft room and sports room.  Right now it’s where a bunch of boxes and my old desk and shelf just sit, so it’s time to step it up!  First thing would be getting all our sports memorabilia ready to hang.

According to most blogs on this topic, women are complaining about all their man’s sports stuff… Well, it’s all my stuff over here because: 1. I’m a slight hoarder, 2. Pegs kept all my trophies and plaques until now, and 3. I have some awesome autographs to show off!

The first project was to get my Bud Light jersey framed, which has Calvin Johnson,  Erik Dickerson, and Davone Bess’s autographs.  The jersey is actually from one of the craziest story in my life where our team won a football competition and Bud Light sent us to the 2012 Pro Bowl in Hawaii for free, no joke.  Well after just about an hour, my jersey project was done.

Framing a Jersey

What you’ll need:

• Jersey
• Other things to include in the frame
• Shadow box
• Short straight pins

After figuring out how I wanted to fold the jersey and measuring it, I headed to Michael’s to get a shadow box that would fit the dimensions.  Lucky for me, they were on sale!

Note: After reading online, I learned shadow boxes were a good route to take rather than just throwing a jersey under glass because over time condensation will get between the glass and jersey which causes it to mold.

I also grabbed some smaller pins while I was out, knowing that I’d need more than the 4 that were included in the frame.

Once home, I opened the frame and started arranging the jersey on the backing.  I actually bought some foam board that I thought I’d use to give the jersey some structure, but didn’t end up needing it this time.

Then I used the pins to keep it in place, trying to hide them as much as possible.  If you can hold the backing up straight, and the jersey doesn’t flap or move, then it’s secure.  It’s not perfect, but it’s straight and the sleeves are folded somewhat nicely — they were the trickiest part.

Next was adding some of the other goodies from the trip to the frame: Pro Bowl ticket, VIP pre-party pass and pictures from the Bud Light competition at Aloha Stadium. Those were easy to just simply pin to the backing where I wanted them.  I didn’t skimp on pins here, and made sure everything was in there securely.

Then I just put the top front of the frame back on, and I was done!  This was much simpler than I initially imagined and I’m excited to get it on the wall soon!  Seriously, the shadowbox I bought made it so easy to get my project done in no time.

Now the guys on the team, Thomas and Ed, want me to make them one…