Baseball Coach Appreciation Cards & Gifts

My boys' Little League seasons wrapped up this past weekend, and we had a great time celebrating with each of their teams and at the league's closing day festivities.   For my little guy's Farm team, the other parents and I decided to give the coaches a special photo book, with pages for each of the players and coaches, as well as from special events like our opening day and Ultimate Skills Challenge.  I created the books in My Digital Studio, using the Game Day Photobook Template, which made it so easy to pull everything together!  Here's the page I created for my Timothy:

The baseball is from the Game Day Baseball digital stamps, and "Game On" is from the Sporting digital stamp set.  The letters of Timothy's name and the number 9 were created using the Timeless Type punches.

Today is actually Digital Download Day over at Stampin' Up!, so after you finish reading this post, be sure to head over and check out the great new downloads!  Here's the link.

I wrapped the photo books up with kraft wrapping paper, stamped with the baseball images from the Great Sport set, and tied with Cherry Cobbler/Whisper White Bakers Twine.

Here is one of the packages with the card tucked in:

And, here's the card design I came up with for Timothy's Farm Diamondback coaches:

The base is Riding Hood Red, with the flourish from the Great Sport stamp set heat embossed in Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.  I also used gold embossing for the baseball image, the details on the black banners, and the "thankful for you" banner, which is from the Banner Greetings hostess exclusive stamp set.  Inside, I layered a piece of Whisper White card stock for a special message and the players' signatures.

For Daniel's Minor Red Sox coaches, I used the same stamps and design, but a slightly different color scheme:

Here are some close ups of the images:

  

Again, the base is Riding Hood Red, but I embossed in silver, except the baseball, which I still embossed with gold.  And, instead of black, I used Not Quite Navy for the banners on either side of the baseball.

My husband managed Daniel's team, and asked me to create a special thank you note he could give to the other coaches.  I decided to stick with the Great Sport images, and created another clean and simple design with that set:

The base for this card is a Whisper White Note Card.  The starburst image is stamped on in Real Red Classic Ink.  The baseball was stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White, using Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler markers to ink up the stamp, and then punched out with the 1-1/4" Circle Punch.

I haven't created a photo book for the Red Sox . . . yet . . . need to get to work on that, as I was hoping to have it ready by Father's Day!  Can't get it printed in time, but at least I'll be able to show Greg the electronic version.  In the meantime, here's a photo of Daniel, looking very thoughtful on the pitcher's mound, from this season:

Hope you enjoyed these baseball creations!

- Michelle