Setting up a party for the big game? Dress up your table with the fun football centerpiece. Choose a variety of colors like we did, or cater the colors to your favorite or to the two teams playing in the biggest night in football! This is a great craft project for kids to do on Saturday before the “Big Game”
What you’ll need:
7” paper plate
4 cardboard tubes
Handful of pebbles or pennies
2-3 sheets of brown construction paper
10 glittery chenille stems, cut in half
1 gold glittery chenille stem, cut in half
Green and white acrylic paint
1 thin point paintbrush
1 wide paintbrush
Clear shipping tape
Scissors
Pencil
How to make it:
1. Use a pencil to trace around one of the cardboard tubes in the center of the paper plate. (
See image.) Cut out the circle in the center of the plate.
2. Paint the plate with green paint and set aside to dry.
3. Tape the four cardboard tubes together, one on top of the other, to create one long tube.
4. Cut four 1.5” long slits in one of the end tubes.
5. Use a thin paintbrush and white paint to add goal line numbers around the outer edge of the plate (10, 20, 30, etc), then paint white lines between each number. The lines should go from the rim of the plate toward the center. Paint a white line around the outer edge of the center hold.
6. Allow to dry.
7. Cover the tube with brown construction paper, leaving only the slits that you cut uncovered. 8. Secure with tape.
9. Have a grown-up use a pen, the end of the scissors or a pointed toothpick to poke twenty holes through the construction paper and the tubes. If you have trouble poking through the tubes because of tape, just poke through the paper. You want the holes to be spaced an inch or two apart and offset.
10. Insert the tube into the hole in the center of the plate, inserting the end of the tube that you just cut the slits in.
11. Once the tube is inside the center hole of the plate, turn over and fold the flaps outward, creating a petal-like look. (
See image.) Turn over to be sure your cuts were even, tube and plate should stand up straight. If tube is leaning, adjust the flaps until straight. Use tape to secure the flaps to the back of the plate.
12. Cut twenty 3” footballs from the brown construction paper.
13. Add lines and stitches to the footballs with white paint and let dry.
14. Tape a chenille stem to the back of each football.
15. Insert the other end of the chenille stems into the holes in the tube. (
See image.) If you encounter a hole that didn’t go through the tube, simply slide the chenille into the hole and it will disappear between the paper and the tube. You can also trim the chenille if they appear too long and reinsert.
16. Take the remaining gold chenille stem that was cut in half. Bend one half into a goal post. 17. Bend the other half in two and wrap the center point around the middle of the goal post to create the stand. Twist around a few times to create a sturdy stand and then bend the ends (if turned upside down it will look like a goal post again!). Insert the “legs” of the stand into the top of the tube between the tube and the paper.
Philadelphia Eagles Youth Football Camps offer comprehensive, non-contact football instruction for kids ages 6-14. These camps are led by professional educators and coaches with supplemental instruction from Eagles Heroes such as Garry Cobb, Sean Landeta, Frank LeMaster, Joe Pagliei, Vince Papale and others. Kids learn to throw, catch, defend, form block, form tackle and explode out of a stance with proper technique and improved speed. Equally important is the emphasis on teamwork, sportsmanship, self-esteem, good health and fitness.
Philaburban Mom 
