CheerandmoreCheer said:
Great thoughts so far. I'd love some specific ideas because I'm not all that creative. What kind of spirit gifts for instance?
I will give you some examples of things I am doing this year. For our Youth Dallas bags me and another mom on the team are doing pillowcases. Name embroidered on the end between the seam of the flap and the edge. Then right above the seam we are sewing black ribbon with white polka dots. The name in Teal and the pillowcase in white. (I did a trial run of these last year........Sam and Katie got 1.they turned out cute so I decided to use it) 2 white pillowcases at Wal Mart in a pack for $6. A $3 roll of ribbon will do 5 pillowcases. We split the cost so it's not been that terrible. For my other team I am doing their Bags for Battle at the Beach.....so we are doing teal towels with their names in White. Probably some cheapy black flip flops with rhinestones glued on. Also cheapy black or white sunglasses with rhinestones on the arms of the glasses. I think they will turn out very cute. Ask for donations from parents either monetary or donations of stuff to put into the bags.
Last year I did black drawstring bags with the kids name on it in teal. Asked for donations from parents and they ended up with great bags.
3 years ago on Youth 2 I did 10 inch plastic white megaphones...put indy pack snacks and candy's in it.......used silver paint pen and put their name's on them, youth 2 and the year, then decorated around it in silver, black and teal paint pens. This is time consuming because it takes a little while for the paint to dry. After they are dry I wrapped them up with clear plastic.....think Easter Basket wrapping......then used lots of curling ribbon in our colors and curled the ends. I think I did that for Jr Coed 3 too one year and both teams loved them.
Days when the whole team dresses alike hand out ribbons or make bows for the teams. During summer when we are having lots of skills camps it's not always easy to find the time to do bows but cutting ribbon and handing them out so the team matches. It looks great and you've made the kids happy with very little money or effort really. Matching team ribbons can also go into gift bags.
Fleece blankets. I've never made these before but my kids have received them and loved them. Cut 2 pieces of fleece in your team colors and lay them on top of each other. Cut tassles in each side about 1 inch apart. Now tie a bottom and top tassle together. Go all the way around. You can also do this with 1 layer of fleece and cut little "buttonholes" equally around all sides and tie matching grosgrain ribbon all the way around.
I have done Christmas ornaments for my team for a few years now and it's not that expensive and they look really nice. WalMart had 14 silver balls for $2.50 Write their names in Black pain pen.......tie a thin red ribbon around the top and voila. LOL I think I did both my teams for about $22 this year.
I year a Mt Airy parent did little cow bells that they painted in our colors and put the kids names on. Those turned out really cute and are useful to make noise when your teams are onstage.
Have each girl bring a 100% cotton white sports bra and tie dye them in your team colors. The lady that was team mom for Youth Elite earlier in the season did those and I thought it was 1 of our cuter outfits. You could tie dye socks for them to match too.
I make cupcakes quite a bit. It's actually a joke among my online friends because I do it pretty often. LMAO Just a small way to give a smile.
Our gym motto is Success Is From the Heart so we just take that and run with it. Alot of the things we do are heart related. I just got finished doing red chocolate heart suckers for all my kids teams and I found these pack of 24 heart ornaments at Walmart. (Can you tell I have walmart's close to me? LMAO) Each kid get's one so they'll remember that they are loved. (The hearts are like for little christmas trees.....they are red with silver string) Very cute yet inexpensive.
I am always on the lookout for things to do for my team. If you see something you think would be cute go ahead and start stocking up. You never know when it'll come in handy.
Hope that helped some. I can't think of anything else. Wish our other team mom's came on here and told about their bags. Our Worlds team's have had some kick bootay bags the last few years.