Tag: sports display

Framed Trophy Plates for Granddad

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This past Friday my Granddad passed away.  His heart has been broken ever since Grandmom passed away 2 years ago, and he has wanted to be with her ever since.  Our family is happier knowing that he went peacefully with family at his side, and is reunited with his true love that he missed so much.

Back when we visited my aunt and uncle in Florida, my aunt Beth gave me a bunch of trophy plates from some of my Granddad’s golf trophies.  When he moved from their house to an apartment, my mom & aunt spent lots of time going through everything in the house and cleaning it out.  While all of the trophies didn’t make the move, they removed the trophy plates to keep the memories, just like I did back in 2014 with my soccer trophies for my sports display projects.  This was the perfect time to do something with them and honor him.

Framed Trophy Plates, pt. 2

What you’ll need:

  • 16″x20″ frame
  • 8″x10″ frame mat
  • 8″x10″ photo
  • Trophy plates
  • Windex
  • Glue
  • Cricut Explore Air
  • Black vinyl
  • Transfer paper
  • 1 felt pad

All of the trophy plates were from various golf tournaments & trips my Granddad participated in, so I decided I wanted to put a picture of my Granddad playing golf in the middle, and the trophy plates around.

When mom came in town for SEWE she brought the cutest picture of Granddad playing golf to use.  I had the photo blown up to be 8″x10″, we found a mat for an 8″x10″ photo with plenty of room for the trophy plates around it and then a 16″x20″ frame for the mat at Hobby Lobby.

gdad-frame-01gdad-frame-05 First, I needed to get the trophy plates in shape.  We used a rubber mallet on a piece of wood to flatten some of the plates that were bent.  Hunter put a hard back book on top of the trophy plate when using the rubber mallet for some to help remove the wrinkles on the softer plates.gdad-frame-02When the plates were mostly flat, I used Windex and a paper towel to clean them all off.  One was even from 1971 (and needed a nice polish)!  Then I placed the picture on top of the mat and arranged the plates around the photo to figure out the layout.  I left some room at the top & bottom to add his name and a quote.gdad-frame-03To make sure I was accounting for the frame overlapping the mat, I took the glass out of the frame, taped the picture to the mat, and put it in the frame.  Then I arranged the plates back on the mat where I wanted, and glued them down in place.gdad-frame-04It’s no secret I have terrible handwriting, so I was definitely using my Cricut to cut out letters on vinyl instead of trying to write the name and quote myself – for everyone’s sake.

I found a quote by Arnold Palmer that embodied Granddad: “Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.” I mocked up the quote and his name in Design Space, cut everything on some black vinyl, then weeded it.gdad-frame-06Then I put the transfer paper on top of the quote / name, pulled away the backing, and applied the letters to the frame mat.gdad-frame-07Because the trophy plates are thicker and I didn’t want the glass right on top of them, I decided to use a felt pad to help.  I cut the pad into several smaller pieces and added 6 to the edge of the mat so the glass would sit on them and leave a lil space to protect the plates.gdad-frame-08I put the glass back in the frame, added the mat (with everything on it) and was done!
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We lay Granddad to rest this week and his golf frame will be at the reception afterwards.  Life won’t be the same without him, but I know the Jack & Nancy show is going strong in heaven 🙂

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Office Update

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Guys. This was like 2 1/2 years in the making, but our home office finally got some love.  It all started when Hunter scored a great shelf for only $10.  We got it in to the office and I finally had a place to put our things (and get them off the floor)!

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It only took over 2 years to finally put up some of the sports display pieces I did back in 2014.  I also got my books out from the bath tub (Hurricane Matthew preparations) and they now have a home!  I bought 4 baskets from Target for the bottom shelf to store / hide some of the packaging & shipping supplies for my shop.  I also used half of the middle shelf to hold my wine glass inventory.office-update_08office-update_05office-update_06Medal display | Trophy plaque display | Trophy Bookend

With the shelf full, I kept going.  We moved my Cofc diploma and Hunter’s Clemson print to be above the new shelf, I hung a volleyball frame on a small wall and found a good spot for my framed Pro Bowl jersey.office-update_12

Full transparency – we haven’t hung the jersey shadowbox yet… We need to add some framing wire to the back to make sure it’s sturdy enough to stay on the wall. Baby steps.

office-update_13Then I turned my attention to the desk area.  I had some really great framed prints & art that had been waiting for a home on the wall so I decided to do a little gallery wall above the desk.  There were 2 nails already in the wall, so I hung 2 pieces and sort of winged it as I picked spots for the others – not the recommended way to make a gallery wall, but more of the “impatient & wine fueled Kelley way.”

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The Town Serif print | Mini Oyster Shell wreath | Elizabeth & Co Oyster painting | Sharks teeth canvas | Bushel and a Peck sign | J Fletcher Charleston print

I used 4 stackable kids storage bins to house my oyster shell inventory.  I have the shells sorted by size and the open front makes it easy to grab what I need, plus the natural wood is just pretty.  You can also see the stack of boxes for shipping on my trunk – not sure what to do with those, so they’re staying as is haha.

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The last big project to tackle was the closet and remaining items still laying on the ground.  Our office has been home to our childhood boxes, anything sports related, my crafting goodies, misc home decor, shop supplies and packaging materials so there was a lot of stuff to go through and organize.

I bought 2 larger stackable bins and put them in the closet to hold my random knick knacks, and went through a lot of the other plastic bins to clean out anything that could be donated or thrown away.  There’s still a lot, but it’s a more organized chaos than before haha.

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There’s still some work to do, but this is seriously the most effort I’ve spent making it nicer since we moved in.  I wish I had a before picture, but it’d be pretty embarrassing as to what the room looked like for years…  Hopefully it won’t just be the chaos room much longer!

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Trophy Bookends

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It’s been almost 2 years since I started my sports display project (?!?!) and I realized I never finished one of the projects.  I talked about repurposing old trophies, but just left some trophy bottoms sitting in the office, never turned into bookends. Well, it’s time.

Trophy Bookends

What you’ll need:

  • Trophy bottoms
  • Goop liquid cement

At the end of September 2014 I had disassembled all my trophies, spray painted some tops, and displayed my medals and patches.  There were 4 trophy bases plus a new CSSC kickball trophy just sitting on my trunk with no purpose, and ready to be made into a book end.

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This is actually really straight forward once you’re to this step.  Decide the order you want to stack the trophy bases for the book end.  I ended up keeping the top of my new CSSC one to add a little height to the book end.

Take out your liquid cement, and put it on the bottom of the base that is 2nd from bottom.  Place that base on top of your bottom base and get it where you want it.

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Repeat for the remaining trophy bases until you’ve created the bookend stack.  Let the liquid cement completely dry, for a few hours or overnight.

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When everything is dry and sturdy, you now have a sports book end!  I put ours on our book shelf in the living room, but eventually it’ll go with the rest of our sports memorabilia in the office / man cave.

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PS – You can find the rest of my sports display posts here!

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7 Favorite Projects of 2014

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Mid January still counts as a time to look back on the past year right?  I feel like I’ve progressed a lot in my crafting this past year and tried more challenging projects in 2014… so thought it might be time to reflect and pick out some favorites!

7. Yard work

I’ll be the first to admit that actual yard work is not exactly fun, but you see results almost immediately.  Although this wasn’t just one project, yard work made the cut because we have done a lot in our yard this year, and it’s been legitimately hard work, but I’m proud to see the results.  Plus I have learned soooo many things about plants that my sister thinks I’ve turned into Pegs.  Maybe I have since I can play the plant name game now…

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6. Wine Cork Crafts

Between letters, corksters, picture frames, trivets, and more, I have made a lot of crafts with wine corks this year — guess I’ve also drank a lot of wine too!  It’s been fun to find and create different crafts with all the corks and I’d love to try some new ones this year.

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5. Repurposing Trophies

As I went through boxes of my childhood things that my mom sent home with me, I ended up having a whole “sport display” theme of projects.  My favorite project was figuring out different ways to get rid of my boxes of trophies, while keeping some of the memories associated with them.  Spray painting the tops, framing the plaques, and stacking the bases for bookends let me consolidate my stuff, but repurpose how it was used.

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4. Stocking Holders

Obviously something from Christmastime had to be on the list.. When I couldn’t choose any stocking holders to buy, I decided to make my own and couldn’t have been happier with the result.  I’m excited to keep these around for years to come!

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3. Oyster Shell Wreath

Once I found the oyster recycling place near our house, I wanted to collect some oyster shells and make a wreath.  Luckily Erin’s engagement party gave me an excuse to, and then it was time to make another for myself!  The wreath is still on our door, and it’ll stay in the ‘front door wreath’ rotation for awhile.

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2. Family Recipes / Boat Cleat Picture

This wasn’t a challenging project by any means, but I loved the family feel it added to our walls.  It’s become a conversation piece in the kitchen, and it’s nice to look up and see our grandparents handwriting and feel them here.  Plus it started my obsession with using boat cleats for different things..

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1. Driftwood Curtain Rod

This was an easy choice for the #1 spot because I was looking forward to completing this project for so long, and then the finished product with the curtains made such a difference in the look of the dining area and overall living room.  Yay for finally completing the project!

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2014 was a good year for me, and I hope this year will have some fun projects too!  What are your favorites?

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Displaying your Favorite T-shirts

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We’ve made it — this is the last post from my sports display theme / office project!  We’ve gone through autographed jerseys, patches & medals, trophies, and more jerseys, yet I still had more stuff — LOTS of t-shirts. Even as a kid, I was quite proud of the t-shirt collection I had, and that didn’t change as I got older.  When we moved to the house, I “went through” my t-shirts and tried to get rid of some (basically I had a massive keep pile, and a small throw away pile, and Hunter questioned 80% of the keep pile..), but was still somewhat unsuccessful.

Needless to say it’s extremely hard for me to get rid of t-shirts and I have plenty from the last 10 years.  Luckily, I saw this idea of how to keep and display realllllly important t-shirts that you can’t throw away, but they’re too special to even wear and wash again.  Now the hard part was deciding on just one, maybe two t-shirts to proudly display.

Displaying Favorite T-shirts

What you’ll need:

  • That special t-shirt you love so much
  • Scissors
  • Canvas
  • Stapler

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Deciding which t-shirt to display took over 50% of the time to finish this craft, seriously.  I had my dad’s Peachtree Road race t-shirt from the year we ran it together that I knew I wanted to use (if I didn’t do something with it, I’m sure Pegs would have).  I also found an Atlanta Beat t-shirt with the team’s autographs from back in the day when our soccer team were ball girls for them.  I’ll need a bigger canvas for that that I don’t have handy, so today it’s just the Peachtree Road race tee.

To get started, buy a canvas that fits the amount of t-shirt you want to display.  I got an 11×14 canvas from Hobby Lobby for the Peachtree Road race tee.  Then lay the shirt out on top of the canvas to see how you want to arrange the shirt.

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Once I knew what part of the t-shirt I wanted “framed,” I cut a lot of the extra fabric off, so it wouldn’t just hang off the canvas.  Then I stapled once in each corner, to hold it in place, while I slowly worked my way around the outside.  In the corners, I gathered the fabric and folded it, then stapled, so it was somewhat flat, yet sturdy.

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Once I made my way around the canvas, I was just about done!  The last thing I did was cut any extra fabric that was still hanging off the back of the canvas.  Fifteen minutes later, your favorite shirt is ready to hang.

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I am debating giving the canvas a more finished look by framing it, but am still undecided.  What do you think?

Now everything is ready to hang… once we get a desk and some shelves :/

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