Carolina Panthers Super Bowl Party

No, I'm not back to regularly blogging in this space. I just got too busy with my job and life, not only to constantly be working on home projects, but to find time to write about them. And we all know that DIY home renovations and lifestyle blogs have lost a lot of momentum in the past few years, especially when Young House Love quit blogging. But I do miss having a place to store information about my projects, as I still often refer back to old posts for source links or to see how I did something. So I'm going to occasionally pop in here, just to document things for myself. 

Last weekend we had friends over to our house to watch the Super Bowl. And having lived in North Carolina for almost five years now, we were definitely rooting for the Panthers to win!

I'd been itching to do some crafting, since I had hardly had any time around the holidays, as I was busy making over our foyer and front entry hall before my in-laws came to visit. So I decided to break out my much-neglected Silhouette machine to make some garland and snack food signs for the big day, to go along with my football and Panthers-inspired menu:

Apps/Snacks

Snackadium with Salsa, Queso and Guacamole

Pepperoni Pizza Football Cheese Ball

Pretzel, Rolo, M&M bites

Candied Popcorn

Main Dinner

Sliders Bar with Pulled Pork and Pulled Chicken 

 Turkey and Ham Cold Cuts, Colby and Pepper Jack Cheese 

Slaw, Fried Onions, Pickles, Sandwich Condiments,

Green salad and Selection of Dressings

Onion and Green Pepper Baked Beans

Desserts/Sweets

Double Stuf Oreos rolled in Blue Sprinkles

Chocolate Cupcakes with Blue Buttercream Frosting and Silver Sprinkles (in Football Patterned Liners with DIY Flags)

Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats Cut into Footballs and Blue Rice Krispies Treats Cut into Helmets

Drinks

Cam's Carolina Cooler (aka Blue Whale)

Panthers Punch (aka Blueberry Lavender Vodka Pitcher)

Coolers of Beer

In a rush just before our friends arrived, I snapped some quick cell phone photos (reminding me how much I need a new phone!) of how my Super Bowl decorations turned out. First up, this Panthers wreath on our front door, inspired by my Christmas felt wreath. For the football "flower" I just hot glued five of these little football stress balls to a piece of cardboard, then folded a strip of cardstock into a fan and glued a little printed Panthers logo in the center.

We never come and go through our front door, but since I knew guests would be, I duct taped some quickie flags I made with my Silhouette machine to some PVC pipe, to fill our planters that are empty this time of year.

Inside, I added some decorations to our mantel. The bunting was made on the Silhouette, and on either side of the TV I filled vases I already had with more of the mini foam footballs and topped them with Panthers mylar balloons.

Around the center of the vases I added some ribbon wraps, and more Panthers logo fan medallions, to match the front door wreath.

The food and drinks set up was the highlight of the decor though. I can never resist the opportunity to put together a cute party table display! I just wish I had better photos than what my cell phone took.

Here's a zoomed and cropped look at our breakfast nook table loaded with Super Bowl snacks. I used paint cans wrapped in paper to raise up the items in the back, left, and a soup can to add an additional level to my cake stand. To label all of the food I made little football shaped tent signs, to which I added the laces and details with a silver Sharpie. The football garland and "Go Panthers" bunting was also done on my Silhouette. The football bowl and platter to the right were from Party City, as were the little football field cups in the center, front, which I also used to hold all of the condiments for the sliders bar (with attached little helmet shaped signs on lollipop sticks to identify the condiments).

And some closer looks at some of the snack table items:

(I really wanted to do a mix of Cam Newton and Greg Olsen cupcake flags, since Olsen is my favorite Panther, but sadly I couldn't find any good images of his face to use)

Over on the kitchen peninsula we had the drinks set up (I made them just as everyone was arriving, which is why the drink dispenser and pitchers are still empty below), along with an ice bucket and Carolina colored cups. We also had Panthers plates and napkins, and black straws and forks set in blue mason jars. Next to that was the salad, sliders bar with the pulled pork and chicken in a double chafing dish (they were still warming in the oven in this photo), and all of the fixings. To save counter space, I opted to put the slider buns in a wide vase, instead of on a platter. And the baked beans were at the end in the crock pot. It made for a pretty good set up to allow everyone to help themselves and make their own sliders throughout the afternoon and evening.

Zoomed and cropped:

And here's a look at the whole food area that my friend Meggi took, after the drinks were mixed and the pulled pork and chicken were transferred from the oven to the chafing dishes.

Finally, the last bit of the party snacks was over on the coffee table, my simple Snackadium. This is the second year I've made one, and with all of the other food we already had, I didn't go too over the top. But Google image search for snackadiums if you want to see some truly impressive masterpieces!

So that's my Carolina Panthers Super Bowl party decor and food in a nutshell. It was definitely a hit with our friends, and a great excuse for me to get my crafting and party planning fix. My girlfriends also appreciated that I made us all Panthers t-shirts to wear for game day. None of us had any Panthers gear, and everything available in stores was pretty pricey, if not already sold out. So I grabbed some $3 shirts from Michaels and used some transfer material I already had on hand to make these for us.

Now, if only the Panthers had actually won the Super Bowl! But oh well, at least I'll be all set come next season for football watching gatherings!