Football season is officially upon us! I LOVE football season. The school traditions and school spirit stir up all of my fun memories of going to Friday night games in high school, and dedicating all day Saturday to college games. It's a great time of year with school starting, and the fall feel in the air. I wanted to create some fun DIYs for this tailgating season to inspire you to get a group of people together and spend the day eating, drinking, playing games, and watching football. It's a good excuse to spend time with family and friends.

These tissue paper footballs made me think of when I was in high school, and my class would put together huge floats for the homecoming parade. With that as my inspiration for my tailgating tablescape, I thought that making giant footballs as a backdrop would be a fun decoration. The tissue paper makes them 3D, while also giving a soft, almost whimsical, touch. They are very easy to do!

Tissue Paper Football DIY

5 sheets (or more depending on the side you want) of brown/copper tissue paper

scissors

white paper for the laces; preferably card stock

twine or ribbon to tie the center

tape

Directions

*Lay the 5 (or so) sheets on top of each other and cut in half, then in half again so that you have 4 equal sections (see pictures)

*Take one section of the cut sheets and set aside the other three for later

*Cut the top sheet about 4 inches on each side

*Cut the next sheet so that it is about a 1/2 inch longer than then first sheet, and repeat until you get to the last sheet that you don't need to cut at all (see picture below for an example); so basically the top sheet will be the smallest and they get larger as you get to the last sheet, because that is what creates the "football" shape; otherwise it looks more like a round shape

*Then, cut the corners off to make it appear more like a football shape; I did this by measuring about three inches in on both side and then cutting to make sure I cut the corners off each sheet

*Fold about a 1 inch vertical section, and then flip over to fold again, so that you are getting an accordion type fold

*Repeat until the entire thing is folded

*Tie a piece of thin ribbon or thread in the center; making sure it is tied pretty tight

*Fluff the tissue paper starting with the shortest piece first, then following with each piece behind it

*If it doesn't look enough like a football shape, use a pair of scissors to cut any more tissue that may need to be cut off

*For the laces I took a sheet of white card stock paper and cut a strip that was about 2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches long; then measured every 1/2 inch in the width; measured out 1/2 inch in the center; cut every 1/2 inch rectangle out to create the lace look of a football; see picture below

*Attach the laces to the center of the tissue paper football with tape; I like using scotch tape because it's really strong

*Use tape (I like scotch tape because it's really strong) to place the tissue paper on the wall or wherever you wish to display it!