It is officially the end of the Spring tennis season here and it seems that there is an end-of-season party every few days now. I love parties and I especially love tennis parties. I have hosted several and I always try to have some cute, inexpensive, tennis-themed party favor to hand out. Here are a few favorites, from virtually no effort to create to very little, if any, effort to create:
1. Pink Tennis Balls – While I'm not a fan of playing matches with pink balls, they are awfully sweet looking. Apparently, a lot of other people don't like playing with them as they are always on sale. So buy them when you see them, tie a ribbon around the can and – voila! Tennis party favor!
2. Tennis “Emergency Kit” – Now, this one requires absolutely no craft skills. Anyone can do it. Take an empty tennis ball can (which I assume you save because surely there is some use for those things) and fill it with all of the little things one might need for a match – a mini-pack of tylenol, a hair band, a band-aid, a mini-tube of sunscreen, lip balm, a small pack of candy – you get the idea. I once received one that had a mini-margarita kit in it! Fill the can, tie on a ribbon and, once again, you are a party favor genius!
3. Personalized Notepaper – This I did for a really special group of tennis friends. I set up a Word document that was to print on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper with a landscape orientation so that there would be two notepaper halves side-by-side (5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ when cut) on each sheet, put each person's name at the top in a pretty font and color, and included a clever tennis saying at the bottom of each notepaper (this one happened to be “I Play Tennis for LAFS” which was the summer league we were in). After printing, the pages were cut in half and bundled with colorful ribbon. Much applause from recipients who thought this was the height of craftiness.
4. Team Key Chain – Similar to the tennis notepaper but with just a tiny bit of craft skill involved because you have to go to a craft store. Buy little key chain kits, designed for kids to do (so should be easy, right?). You pop the plastic cover off, insert your computer print-out design, snap the cover back on, and there you have your team key chain. I made these for a summer league one year – one side had a picture of Brad Pitt on it and the other side said “Brad Pitt and Tennis – No Place But LAFS” (same summer league, into fun stuff). These were a huge hit. As would be anything tying together Brad Pitt and tennis.
5. Personalized Tennis Towel – Let me be clear here – I am not talking about the kind of personalized tennis towel that has been professionally monogrammed. That is reserved for a captain's gift. Or a gift for your teenage daughter who has finally seen the tennis-playing light. Rather, what I mean is a “homemade” tennis towel that starts with a cheap white hand towel purchased at some place like Wal-Mart and is “personalized” with an iron-on generated by you on your computer. You can buy iron-on paper that you feed through your printer at any craft or office supply store. Believe me, I have done this and it is not only easy, it makes you look like some kind of craft goddess (which may or may not be a good thing).
© Kim Selzman 2009
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