Two of a Kind Working on a Full House: It's (almost) Football Time in Tennessee!

Can you believe that football season is about to start up?!

I've seen preseason games on ESPN and according to my calendar, its right around 3 weeks until UT's first game! That seems so crazy-- can't believe its already that time again!

I do enjoy football season, not only because of the games to be watched, but because of the other things associated with football season. Colder weather, fall clothes, tailgates, good food, and how beautiful Tennessee gets with the changing of the season.

Football season is not quite the same being out of high school and out of college. It kills Troy to not be playing after playing for sooo many years at all age levels. We hope to make it to Knoxville for at least a game this season (add 3 more hours to the drive there, holy cow!) and I'm sure well make it to a Friday night game at good ole HHS. We'd also love to see Lawson's middle school team play, the only problem is they play during the week and we probably will never be in H'ville mid-week.

I've seen in different stores and shoppes these burlap football door hangars for front doors. I think they are SO cute and decided to make my own in preparation for the football season. I got my inspiration from this site.

Things you need:

about a yard of burlap (I got mine from Hobby Lobby $3.99/yd with a 40% off printed coupon)
wax paper to make template for football cut out, unless you want to freehand!
plastic bags (I used Kroger/TJ Maxx bags, probably 6 total)
stapler with staples
jewelry wire (The larger the gauge the better. The site suggests 12 gauge, Hobby Lobby's largest was 18 so thats what I got. I think it turned out fine but I could see how 12 gauge might have worked better! It was $2.99 for the spool and I used a 40% off printed coupon. You can use a coupon every visit, so I just went back at another time to use the 2nd coupon for this wire)
thin floral wire (I got from Wal-Mart for $2)
ribbon of choice (I got white ribbon for mine from Wal-Mart for about $4)
acrylic paints (I got from Wal-Mart ranging from about $1-2 each)
bottle squeeze paint (I got mine from Wal-Mart for $.97)

First step, I pinned the burlap together with straight pins so it would stay together and even while I cut the burlap.

I took wax paper and made my template (fold the wax paper in half so as you cut it, its even on both sides)

I pinned the half-football template to the burlap so it'd stay in place and I could make a straight and even cut.

Once I had completed cutting the first part of the football, I mirrored the template to complete the full football shape.

I pinned this down as well.

There's the complete football shape!

Next, take your stapler and staple around the football. I took my staples about 1 inch in and about 1 inch apart from each another.

Keep stapling until you have a gap large enough for you to stuff the plastic bags inside to give the football depth.

I used Kroger and TJ Maxx bags mainly because of their color--more of a beige color rather than stark white grocery bags. I also folded them in a way where less of the print on the bag was showing. You don't want to be able to see the print through the loose weave of the burlap.

One thing that I really liked about the example from the website was that she made it have a more rustic and "imperfect" feel. I wanted the edges of my football to be really frayed so I took scissors and roughed up the edges.

Alright, the football is completely stuffed, stapled up, and frayed around the edges… time to paint!

(The only reason I did this project underneath these terrible pink towels was for when it was time to paint. We use these towels to wash the cars and apparently for painting projects, but nothing else, promise, haha!)

My personal touch: Once I finished with the UT side and let it complete dry, I flipped the football over to make a Cowboys side. Since I'm a UT football fan and Troy is a Dallas Cowboys football fan, I thought we could represent both of our teams on the weekends. On Saturdays, when Big Orange is playing, our front door will read "Go Vols" and on Sundays (and any other days) the Cowboys are playing, our front door will have The Boy's star. (Pictures of the Dallas side below)

Once all the paint has dried take your wire and from back to front, thread it through and make "curly-cue's" to finish it off.

The example added a bow on the burlap football, but since mine was double-sided I knew I wouldn't be able to do that without it looking goofy from the opposite side. So I decided to make a bow with white ribbon (universal) and just attach it to the actual door hanger. So no matter which side I have the football flipped to, the bow will still show up top!