Every teen athlete—whether a NCAA Division I hopeful or recreational player—has sports memories worth preserving.

Sports Memories that win

Today’s post is part of the LinkedIn “Superstar” blog hop.

Superstar sports memories We hope our interpretations of “Superstar” gives you some inspiration for your own superstar. If you’re coming from Patty  Chenail’s site  at http://www.stamppattys.com/2013/08/august-blog-hop.html, you’re at the right place.

Congratulations to Cheryl Albee, the winner of the Superstar blog hop. his month’s winner. There’s still a prize if you subscribe to this blog. Every subscriber receives my brainstorming resource: Brainstorming Worksheet: What I Want to Remember about….

Now and Then Sports Memories

If they’ve been playing their sport for a while, it’s great to make a now versus then perspective of sport memories. This layout, based on graduation party invitation reject idea, is simple, whether you use paper or work digitally.

Now and then sports memories

I used an action shot taken during my son’s senior year and a posed shot taken when he was about five. In keeping with the graduation theme, I used a Varsity font and a school mascot for embellishment.  If your athlete plays for a club or city league, you could add that name and logo.

Narrative about you photos almost always adds to your page and your memories. In this case, I felt the photos spoke for themselves.

If your “superstar” has memories from multiple sports, consider creating a collage. Since my son isn’t apt to page through a scrapbook, I made him an 11” x 17” poster. Printing it at my local print shop only cost a couple of dollars.

Collage of sports memories

Special Sports Moments

Every kid deserves some ink, whether they’re the star of their team or not. Write about special victories, great offensive or defensive moments, camaraderie, or whatever made the season special.

Don’t overlook the little sports memories. Include things like a pass to a best friend, bloopers, antics with the coach, or a mud bath of a game.

Special Moments sports memories

This “Teammates” layout celebrates the fun of soccer buddies—getting dirty, wet, and cold; hanging out together; making memories. In this example, I used a digital template, but again, you could do it just as easily with paper. (To see a tutorial of inserting photos in a digi-template, see  What June Means to Me .) sports memories action shot poster

Action Shots

If you have access to a good camera or if another team parent is a good photographer, kids LOVE to see themselves in action. Even a short video clip is great—they really enjoy posting it to their Facebook page.

I realize that making every kid on the team his or her own personalized action sports memory poster is over the top, but one mom I know did this. Ok, it was me. One season as team manager, I arranged for a photographer to come to two games and give me a disc full of unedited shots. At season’s end, I gave each boy his own poster generated by Snapfish’s collage poster utility.  It took quite a lot of time, but they went over BIG with the players and parents.

Sports Memories Keepsakes

Kids aren’t the only ones that appreciate sports memories. Parents-who have spent countless hours carpooling, standing in the heat or cold and cheering, and writing checks–need sports memories keepsakes too.

Sometimes you can’t get a clear, crisp action shot for every kid on the team, even if you do have access to a good photographer. An artistic “rendering” in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or Gimp can be the answer. Even with so-so photos (including those taken during warm-ups—you don’t need other players in the shot), you can Photoshop the ball or puck in the frame, and “render” the photo. (Tutorial coming soon.)

A few years ago, I used Element’s rendering to make each parent a soccer banquet program featuring his or her son. We printed them in blue scale for budget reasons, but the result was pleasing. Parent keepsake for sports memories

During the same banquet, each mother of a senior received a keepsake sports memories poster. Seeing my gift literally brought tears to my eyes, even though it does have a photo of my son doing a “plank” on a garbage can. Sports memories gift for mom If you have someone willing to put in the time on a project like this, it really is worth the effort.

Next stop on the Super Star blog hop:

If you “hop” on over to Connie Walsh’s blog at http://papercraftingfromanotherviewpoint.blogspot.com/2013/08/superstar-li-bloghop-for-august.html; she’s prepared something special to show you.

Sports Memories that win I’m interested to know your thoughts… How are you preserving sports memories?

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