Dynamite!

My daughter, Katie, is a pitcher on a recreation fast pitch softball team.  My husband, Dan, has been coaching her for the past couple of seasons.  It is a beautiful thing to watch dad and daughter together.  They truly enjoy the time together in a way that is visibly joyful.  The other fun part of the whole experience is getting to interact with ten other lovely young ladies who are also on the team.  Twelve-year-olds are entertaining!  Since I help by keeping score in the dugout each game, it is my pleasure to participate in generating thank you gifts to the girls. 

In one of our first seasons, we had the pleasure of being a part of a team coached by Joe Strazz.  Coach Joe has a kind, giving disposition and Katie enjoyed her time on his teams. Coach Joe and his wife Lisa started a tradition that we keep moving forward to this day.  Joe would take pictures from the dugout and put them together into small photo albums.  Lisa would Cricut a lovely cover and the girls received an instant memory of the season.  Additionally, Lisa would get the girls on the team to sign a picture matting and give the coaches a signed, framed photo of the team. 

Coach Joe has retired from coaching (come back, Coach Joe, come back).  Since Dan has taken up the reigns, we have continued Joe's tradition.  Our season ended last week and I had the pleasure of generating the coaches gifts. 

The Dynamite title was cut using the Nifty Fifties Cricut font.  I used the Design Studio software to nudge the letters together.  I can't say I'm anywhere close to an expert on the Design Studio, but for cutting out single words, it works great.  I also cut the matting out of blue paper.  I sized the opening to match the picture and then cut the rectangle on the Cricut.  I trimmed the edges until it fit into the picture frame.  The girls then sign the frame and each coach (there are four on our current team) received one.

Each girl is also given a photo album.  This year the girls had softball knee socks with blue stars on white, so I used the shooting star from Cricut's Home Accents to decorate the page front using blue cardstock with a black cardstock shadow cut of the image.  Each girl is assigned a team nickname (again, thank you Coach Joe).  Katie's nickname, Sting, was assigned by Coach Joe because when her bat connected with the ball the bat would ring with a "stiiiiinnnggg".  Their jersey number is also on the page.  Each image letter image is outlined using a black Sharpie (you have to simplify when you're making 11 of these). 

The album is filled with photos taken at the games and practices.  I try to get shots of each girl individually as well as with her teammates.  When the season is over and all is said and done, the photo album is left to be flipped through and remember the good times.  The back cover was made using Cricut's Sports Mania cart.  I used the Batter Up image with black cardstock shadow, white cardstock blackout, and a brown cardstock image.  The blue cardstock "Batter Up" was cut from the image where I trimmed the diamond and bat off and glued it down on top of the brown cardstock version to give the words a pop.  I also didn't use the entire white blackout image, but trimmed out just the diamond portion to glue under the brown cardstock image.

Each one of these girls is precious and lovely and the album is our gift to honor that effort.  This season, we were blessed to actually compete in the championship game for the season tournament.  To our great joy, we won the game in an 11-10 squeaker when Gator (Ali- get it?), pitching a great game, picked up a ground ball short of the mound and tossed it to Mack Attack (Mackenzie) who was standing on 1st base.  Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the CGS 12U Girls Fast Pitch Spring 2011 Softball Champions.